Emily Sweeney wrote an article for The Boston Globe titled The secret life of Boston’s street corner fire alarm boxes (16 April 2026).
« When Boston turned on its fire alarm telegraph system on April 28, 1852, it was the first of its kind in the world, making its debut more than 20 years before Alexander Graham Bell was granted his patent for the telephone. »
« Because it operates separately from electric and telephone lines, the system isn’t affected by power outages or downed phone lines… When the entire 911 emergency phone system went down across Massachusetts for several hours one day in June 2024, Boston’s fire alarm boxes were still functioning, and Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox made a point to remind people about that… During another 911 outage on Dec. 28, 2018, someone used a fire alarm box at the corner of Endicott Street and Cooper Street in Boston’s North End to report a fire. »
« “When you pull the fire box, you don’t even talk to anybody,” said Mario Colucci, 65, whose job is to fix fire boxes that are in need of repair. “There’s no language barrier … They just send the fire trucks. Right then they know there’s a problem, whatever it may be.” … Colucci is part of a team of 13 people who maintain the city’s network of street boxes. »
« There are currently approximately 1,250 fire alarm boxes on Boston’s streets, and another 1,200 so-called “master boxes” that are connected to schools, hospitals, libraries, and other public buildings, according to Colucci, who works in the machine shop at the Boston Fire Department’s headquarters on Southampton Street. »
« Years ago, those telegraph signals appeared as punch-outs on a ticker tape, and dispatchers at the office had to decode them by counting the number of holes in the tape. Today, it’s much easier: the specific box number appears on a computer screen, so dispatch can send out firefighters from the nearest station to respond to the call. »
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