Small Town FireFighting

[Dave]

We have a thread on the Utica Fire Department, but many of us have some experience and interest in rural firefighting. Gathering the firemen to fight the fire was the first problem after getting the fire reported. The fire whistle or siren only woke so many people up in the middle of the night. Sound sleepers or those farther away would miss the siren's call.

Here's a snippet I found on the Internet regarding how things were in the Rush, NY (near Rochester) fire district before the advent of a central county dispatching system.

"Dispatch: When phones were first place in town all you had to do is pick it up and tell the operator you had a fire. The operator located in West Henrietta would set off the siren and the fire fighter would pick up their phone and get the information. When dial came in we had a seven digit number that rang 5 phones in homes and businesses in town - the person who answered would set off the siren and wait for a firefighter to pick up the phone at the fire station and give them the information. Then the City of Rochester set up a county wide number for all fires in the county and had a system of tones that would set off the siren and open up the home monitors that were in the firefighters homes, they were the size of a bread box. We then got smaller radios and pagers as time went on. Today we are dispatched by Monroe County 911 in Rochester which is equipped with both ANI and ALI data bases to get correct locations from callers on hard wire phones. The pagers are much smaller now and we also have some digital text paging equipment . Our calls are also sent to members cell phone as a back up to all our other alerting systems. The fire station is equipped with MDT (Mobile Data Terminals) and printer that give us the locations and information about the emergency call we are being dispatched to."

[Dave]

I was a volunteer in Ulster County, NY from 1974 through 1977 and always had a Plectron radio at home on which to receive alarms. With the volume turned up, it had no problem waking the entire household with its tones sounding followed by the spoken information about the fire.

I didn't get the radio from the fire department until I finished my training, however, and became qualified to drive the pumper. So my neighbor, a long time fireman, would have his wife call me as he ran out of the house after his Plectron went off.

Mary was a sweet little lady who was embarrassed to call a man, someone else's husband, in the middle of the night. She would dial my number and, half asleep, stammer, "Dave? I really hate to bother you, but there's a fire." She said this with the same amount of excitement in her voice as if reporting the price of eggs was up again this week.

"Where?" I would shout.

"Well, do you know where Bonnie Smith ran over the chicken last year on the Kings Highway?"

"No, Mary, I don't know where ...."

"Oh, sure you do! Wait, I know. Put your wife on the phone. She'll remember."

"Hi Mary," says Mrs. Dave. "Is little Beth still sick with the flu?"

Pulling up all my zippers, I shout, "Where the hell is the #%#$ing Fire!"

"Mary," says my wife, "David was wondering if you could tell him where the fire is."

"Of course, I'm wondering where the #%#$ing Fire is! I'm a #%#$ing Fireman!" I shout. "Where did Bonnie Smith run over the chicken last year?"

"Oh," says Mrs. Dave, "I don't know, dear. Wait, I'll ask Mary. Mary, where did Bonnie Smith run over a .... You know, I think it was turkey. Mary wasn't it a turkey?"

Mary told her husband later she really didn't like calling me in the middle of the night, and she suspected I had an anger problem. I often do, at three in the morning.