Referring to the period before 1903, Traylor Russell said "if the night watchman or city marshal (or anyone else) spotted a fire, they would begin shooting guns. Hearing gunfire, firemen would assemble at the fire station and proceed to the fire." …. " Later a large bell was located at the fire station and would be rung to sound the fire alarm, and cotton gins and other establishments that had steam whistles would blow them in a certain way to sound a fire alarm."
SOUNDING THE ALARM
The fire department's ability to notify firemen of a fire before the advent of two-way radios and pagers presented a problem. Since firefighters were volunteers, they would be spread all over town in the course of their normal activities at any given time.
According to Traylor Russell, before the City of Mt. Pleasant began installing a water works system, R. Henry Fuller, who owned a furniture store on the north side of the square, organized a bucket brigade to fight fires. If the night watchman or city marshal (or anyone else) spotted a fire, they would begin shooting guns. Hearing gunfire, the firemen would assemble at the fire station and proceed to the fire. Mr. Russell also says that later a large bell was located at the fire station and would be rung to sound the fire alarm, and cotton gins and other establishments that had steam whistles would blow them in a certain way to sound a fire alarm.
We are unsure of what, if any, early fire reporting systems Mt. Pleasant may have had or when telephones, telegraphs, alarms, and community sirens were first used to report fires to the fire department or to alert firemen to a fire alarm. In examining City Council Minutes we noticed that when the City Council granted M. Greenspun a telephone franchise on June 17, 1902 that Section 5 of the ordinance reads:
"Section 5 - In consideration whereof the said M. Greenspun his associates and assigns shall permit the City of Mt. Pleasant to occupy sufficient space upon the top cross arms of said M. Greenspun, his associates, and assigns, for its municipal fire alarm telegraph system and in case of the maintenance of a telephone exchange hereunder the said M. Greenspun his associates and assigns will furnish for the use of said City and without charges one exchange telephone in the office of the Mayor of said City and maintain the same as long as an exchange is maintained hereunder."
We do not know if a fire alarm telegraph system was put in place, or if this was simply standard contract verbiage of the day permitting Mr. Greenspun to do so.
Some time between 1907 and 1912, the city fire station was located on the northeast corner of the Titus County Court House square. On August 6, 1912, the City Council minutes record payment of $2.50 to Ralph Soape, manager of the telephone company, for July telephone service at the fire station. Later, the January 6, 1914 City Council minutes recorded that "The Secretary was instructed to notify Jesse Reid that he would hereafter be permitted to allow no persons to loiter in and around the fire station." The next fire station was a metal building at the corner of West Third and North Madison Streets. It was torn down to erect the City Hall there in 1918.
The City employed full-time drivers to take the fire report and drive the truck to the scene, but the driver could do little after arriving at a fairly large fire without help since considerable manpower and teamwork is required to lay the hose, connect it, move it where it is needed, and actually fight the fire. Gunshots or a bell (as described by Mr. Russell) could not be heard more than a few blocks, and became insufficient as the town grew. Valuable time was lost in notifying various plants and mills around town to sound their steam whistles.
For several years the City used a steam siren located at the light plant to alert volunteers of a fire, but the light plant quit using steam after high tension electric lines were erected. We don't know when the steam siren was first put into use, but assume it was before latter 1923 when microfilmed newspaper accounts begin, because we feel sure it would have been a news item if it had been installed later.
A November 13, 1926 Mt. Pleasant Daily Times article said that the steam siren would be moved to the Cotton Belt shops south of town because the their boilers always contained plenty of steam. Apparently relocating the siren didn't work out, because a Chamber of Commerce committee consisting of C. L. Keith, George Lilienstern, Cheney Riddle, and C. A. Pickett appeared before the City Council on March 6, 1928 to request that the City purchase a large siren that could be heard all over town to help reduce the city's fire risk. The Mayor appointed Aldermen Florey, McClintock, and Lilienstern to investigate the cost of a siren and report back to the Council as soon as possible. On October 2, 1928 the committee still had not made a decision, and in the December 5, 1928 Council meeting they reported that they were unable to find a suitable siren that the City could afford to buy. They asked to be discharged from searching, which the Council approved.
On July 11, 1930, the City purchased two new sirens for the fire department. They upgraded the siren on the 1926 Seagraves so it was easier to hear in traffic. More important, they finally purchased the large electric siren that was used to alert volunteer firemen of a fire. The big electric siren with an automatic control was installed on top of City Hall. It was sounded when a fire was reported and could be heard pretty well all over town after it was installed. The siren was moved to an aircraft beacon tower erected behind the fire station at 402 North Washington when the fire station was moved in 1961. The same siren continued to alert firemen of fires until the 1980s. It was also incorporated into the City's tornado warning system when they purchased their first three large rotating Federal Civil Defense sirens. It continued as part of the Civil Defense system until the City was able to purchase enough sirens to be heard in all parts of the city.
The single large siren, like bells and gunshots, had its drawbacks. Firemen might not be able to hear the siren to know there was a fire if they were sleeping, if there was considerable noise in their house (the TV was on), if a hard wind was blowing which redirected the sound, or depending on how far they were from the siren.
Due to lack of historic records, we don't know exactly when the following method of telling volunteer firemen the fire's location began, but "the code" was mentioned in March 15, 1956 Volunteer Fire Department minutes. We know the process originated long before 1956, and suspect a similar process began in the 1930s, if not earlier, with minor changes being made as the fire department added drivers to its staff and technology progressed. The process worked as follows:
An extension of the Fire Department's emergency telephone number (572-3441) also rang at the Police Department. When a person called the Fire Department to report a fire, the police dispatcher picked up the extension phone, listened in on the call, and wrote down the location and type of fire. Before they hung up, the Fire Department told the police dispatcher which company or if all units should respond. If someone stopped by the fire station and reported a fire in person, the Fire Department contacted the police dispatcher on an intercom that connected the stations and gave them the information.
One engine left the station immediately as soon as the caller hung up. The second Engineer sounded the large siren at the fire station to alert firemen, then drove the second engine to the fire.
When volunteer firemen heard the siren, they called the Police Department to find out the fire's location. They gave the dispatcher their company, followed by a code word which changed periodically to prevent others from using it illegally. If they gave the correct code and their company was to respond, the dispatcher told them where the fire was. If they didn't give the correct code, the dispatcher hung up and answered the next call, which was usually another fireman.
While it was the best method available at the time, it had problems. The Police Department only had three telephone lines (counting the Fire Department extension), and only one dispatcher to answer them. Therefore, only one fireman at a time could find out the fire's location, which added a considerable delay since all 20 to 30 firemen had to call the Police Department. As sometimes happened, the police dispatcher also received quite a few calls from the public either reporting the fire or traffic accident, just curious to know what was going on, or calling about police department business. Since he had nothing else to do, the dispatcher also had to handle radio traffic on two channels and greet anyone who walked into the police station while he answered the phone for the fire department.
While the fire department Engineers were at the fire, the fire station was not manned. The police department dispatcher assisted firemen at the fire scene by handling their radio traffic and answering the telephone for them if another call came in. If necessary, the police dispatcher contacted the gas and electric companies to have utilities turned off at a structure fire, called an ambulance when needed (which were operated by the local funeral homes), notified business owners or other responsible parties, and handled other traffic related to the emergency.
Through the years, as available technology improved and prices became affordable, and the Volunteer Fire Department upgraded its communications. The Volunteer Fire Department paid for much of the technology from their own funds, with assistance from the City and County when necessary.
To help solve problems inherent with firemen not being able to hear the large electric siren, which became inadequate as the town grew and in times of strong winds, the Fire Department asked the City Council to subsidize the installation of an automated telephone alert system to notify them of fires.
At the request of the Fire Department, on February 19, 1969 the City Council agreed to subsidize an automated telephone alerting system to notify volunteer firemen in their homes of a fire. The unit would cost $70 (about $410 in 2007 dollars) to install and $106.50 per month to lease (about $625.00 in 2007 dollars). The Volunteer Fire Department agreed to pay $64, with the City paying the remaining $42.50. With the new system, when a fire was reported, the fireman on duty would record a message on a tape loop in the telephone system. The message would contain the fire's location, what kind of fire it was, and what company(s) were to respond. The system was programmed to automatically dial each fireman's home telephone number simultaneously. To make a fire alarm stand out from a normal telephone call, the fireman's telephone would ring three short rings followed by one long ring.
As soon as the automated telephone message had been recorded and activated, the fireman on duty would turn on the large siren to alert firemen around town, and the automated telephone system continued to be supplemented by the Police Dispatcher in case firemen were at work or otherwise not at home.
As the price of VHF-FM two-way radios came down and used radios began to come on the market, many volunteers purchased their own radios. Additionally, multi-channel police scanners came on the market that allowed firemen (and the public) to monitor local police and fire frequencies at an affordable price. Because VHF transceivers and scanners had become popular among the volunteers, the fire department also began announcing fire alarms on their radio system.
Portable pagers provided the next advance in communications to alert the volunteers. With a scanner or walkie-talkie, the fireman had to listen to all of the traffic on the frequency all of the time. Therefore, scanners could not be carried in meetings, churches, and other places where the sound of radio traffic would disturb others. Pagers included a circuit so that muted the volume until the pager received a particular tone. When the tone was received, the receiver mute was deactivated and the person carrying it could hear the message. Additionally, the pagers could receive traffic anywhere in the county and in adjoining counties. By having different tone circuits, all units or only a particular unit or only drivers could be paged without disturbing firemen that didn't need to hear the message.
Later advances in pagers provided vibrate alerts and text messaging that did not require the pager to make any noise. The owner could simply read the message if they chose.
FIREGROUND COMMUNICATIONS
The Mt. Pleasant City Council appointed William "Hamp" Blythe as Fire Marshal on November 1, 1960. In the same City Council meeting, Mayor W. A. Ferguson told the Council that the Volunteer Fire Department had asked the Council to consider helping buy a citizen's band radio base station for the Department, asking the City pay about $132.15 (about $930.00 in 2007 dollars) and allowing City employees to provide the labor to install the radio. They also requested that the City install mobile units in each City vehicle at $100.00 each (about $700.00 each in 2007 dollars).
The Council discussed the matter, but took no action because they wanted to check with Southwestern Bell Telephone Company on the cost of telephones in each home on special line. In their next meeting on November 15, the mayor explained that the phone service for firemen was cost-prohibitive. After discussion, Alderman Reed made a motion seconded by Alderman James Smith to erect the tower and install the citizen's band base station, provided that 75% of the firemen agreed to put radios in their cars or vehicles. The motion carried unanimously.
The firemen purchased and installed tube-type CB radios for their own vehicles, and the City purchased and installed the base station and mobile radios in the trucks. Citizen's Band was the most affordable radio system in its day, but communications left much to be desired for several reasons. In 1958, the Federal Communications Commission opened Class D CB service at 27 MHz AM for short-distance personal radio communication. There were only 23 CB channels, with Channel 9 reserved for emergency use. Maximum legal CB power output power was four watts. Because of the low power output, range was very limited as the FCC intended it to be. The radios were subject to interference, skip, and "dead spots" where a signal could not be obtained in certain parts of the county, depending on the height of the mobile unit vs. the height of the base antenna. At the time, technology was not advanced enough for VHF-FM radios to be affordable for volunteers who had to pay for their own radios, and CB radio beat no radio at all. It was a big step forward to have radio communications between mobile units or a mobile and the base, regardless of the technical drawbacks.
To Be Continued...
