VIDEO: One of the fastest ways to report an emergency dates back to the 1800โs, and one Midstate community still has the system in service. The Borough of Hanover passed an ordinance to install Gamewell fire alarm boxes in 1911. Each box has a number. When the handle on one is pulled during an emergency, a circuit is broken, bells ring within the box, and the fire department receives a telegraph that lets them know which box was triggered.
Hanover Area Fire and Rescue Chief Anthony Clousher says the system offered reassurance during the recent statewide 911 outage, but heโs worried not everyone knows the older looking boxes still work. โHad there been an incident in Hanover or Penn Township, where thereโs a box available and they activate the box, weโre not relying on that 911 system in any way, shape or form,โ says Chief Clousher.
The Gamewell system alerts firefighters to an emergency in seconds. The 911 process can take minutes. Thatโs why a group of volunteers is working to maintain and restore the boxes that still exist in several Schuylkill County communities.
โOn average across the nation, thereโs about a 2 to 2 and a half minute delay in dispatch from the time the alarm goes out until it goes to their monitoring station and then gets relayed to the proper 911, where they actually dispatch it,โ says Andy Gudinas with the Silent Sentinel Restoration Project. โSometimes youโre getting the fire department dispatcher, sometimes youโre just getting an operator who relays that call,โ says Tom Donathan, who works in fire alarm equipment maintenance.
โThe communities that do have them should keep them in service for several reasons, number one, not everybody has a cell phone at all times,โ says Mike Kitsock, curator of Schuylkill Historical Fire Society. While the costs have outweighed the benefits in other communities, Clousher says in Hanover buildings that have the boxes are billed for the service. That money is then used for maintenance.
โWe still want them to call 911, but we want them to pull the fire alarm box first, because that is the quickest way to get the signal to us,โ Clousher says. โAs soon as they pull that little white hook in the box and that wheel starts to turn inside, our bells start ringing here.โ
There are 128 boxes located throughout the borough. The Hanover Fire Museum displays early models of the Gamwell system. Some of the boxes used today are electric, but they still send a telegraph to the fire company. Clousher says more boxes will be added to future buildings.
