Gamewell Fire Alarm Dispatch

Fire call boxes show value in Schuylkill

In the age of smartphones, tablet computers and Wi-Fi, a technology introduced in the 1880s is still used in parts of Schuylkill County.

According to Tom Donathan, fire alarm supervisor at the Schuylkill Historical Fire Society in Shenandoah, the only municipalities in the county that still use fire call boxes are Pottsville, Shenandoah, Mahanoy City, Tamaqua, Cressona and Saint Clair.

In spite of their fading popularity, Donathan believes they are the fastest way to summon firefighters to a blaze.

"You will know in 15 to 20 seconds where you're going with these," Donathan said. "Speed is a big thing."

Although most county municipalities have gotten rid of the boxes, Donathan said the benefits of keeping the systems is that when properly maintained they can operate with no electricity since they have a backup battery. Moreover, if one part of the circuit breaks or if lines are broken, it will send a signal through a ground return.

He also touts their usefulness for non-English-speaking people - a dispatcher who knows a foreign language is not needed to send firetrucks to the right place - and for people unfamiliar with an area and its landmarks.

"They pull the box and you know where it is," he said. "There's no language barrier."

Nevertheless, Scott Krater, 911 director for Schuylkill County, believes that while the call boxes have their advantages, they have run their course in history. Although easy to use, Krater said new technology and practices serve all the same purposes while being more efficient.

New gadgets can also breach the language barrier. The county has a contract with a company called Language Line, which interprets any language the dispatch center needs.

"We also have technology now with people calling from a cell phone or land line that can identify the particular area they are calling from," Krater said. "We don't even need to know what municipality they're in since we have technology that gives a general location."

He said one shortcoming of the call boxes is they don't allow the communications center to gather more details about a particular incident.

Krater said if a telephone call comes into the center, personnel also send out a page with all the pertinent information about who needs to go and who's responding.

"Any fire company would also like to know what they're going to," Krater said. "If you pull a street box, you don't know what's happening.

Free Gamewell Fire Alarm Box

You know, it really aggravates me when "free for the taking" thread turn out this way. I sent you a PM at 10am Thursday saying that I would like it. There was never a mention of trades or deals in the original post, so a trade was never offered by me. If one was to be considered, it should've been posted and perhaps something could've been worked out. To me, a trade is the equivalent of monetary compensation, and neither is truly free. I'm disappointed, especially since the fact that we (Rob & I) had a paid transaction a few years ago. I have to 100% agree with you Joe. Rob, I would say I was very disappointed to wake up this morning and read this thread seeing as I contacted you at 630 am yesterday and even received a reply from you with specifcs about the box, your work schedule, and your availability to meet for a pickup, only to find out Mike swooped in (Nothing against Mike). I don't like calling people out in public for stupid sh*t like this, but it was very very misleading from the thread to the PM. For the record, the trade offer was NOT his idea but mine . I felt that he should be compensated for the box, and not something to give away for free. That should be made perfectly clear. Don't get upset with Rob on this one. It was 100 percent on me for that. So calm down on him guys, he was always offering it for free, never as a trade, it was my intention to OFFER it, as what I felt should be fair compensation... end of story. IF he received a PM from someone else prior to mine, then he should offer it to them first. But for the record, if someone sends a PM to make an offer on a item on the classifieds, the smart thing to do would to also post it here, so others know you have contacted them... that way, it's clear that something is in the works, ALSO that others know your intentions. If Greg you had PMed him at 6:30, you could've posted at 6:30 that you did, so Joe, Myself and others know, see what I am saying?

All of the Above I

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