History of Alarms

A large bell was purchased by the City of Fredericton around 1855. It was mounted on the Fire Station at 441 King Street. The bell would be rung to alert the volunteer fire fighters when a fire was in progress in the City - different types of "rings" would indicate the particular area of the City where the fire was located. Church bells were rung for some of the larger fires, more often for night fires.

A smaller bell was brought to Canada by the Leo Hayes family in the early 1900's. The bell was mounted on a building at the corner of St. Mary's Street and Union Street, formerly the Hayes Livery Stable, until the late 1930's. The bell was donated to the Devon Volunteer Fire Department, when the Town of Devon built their first fire station on St. Mary's Street, in the early 1940's.

This bell would be rung to alert the volunteer fire fighters when a fire was in progress in the Devon area. When the St. Mary's Street fire station was demolished in 1958, the bell was then displayed at the MacLaren Avenue Fire Station.

Fredericton had its first electric fire alarm system installed in 1897 after Fire Chief Lipsett and Alderman Golding chairman of the fire committee had during the previous year been in communication with the heads of fire departments throughout Canada obtaining information as to the best system available.

It is to Mr. T. C. Doherty, father of former Fire Chief Harold Doherty, and himself a member of the fire Dept. that we are indebted for an account of the turning in of the first fire alarm from a call box in the city.

The first alarm was turned in from Box 35 at the intersection of Carleton and Brunswick Streets at 12:06 PM on October 4, 1897. It was a false alarm turned in by Mayor Wesley VanWart and the members of the City Council who "loitered" in the Old Burying Ground and timed the arrival of the Fire Department, which was about 5 minutes. The fire station was on King St. about a block and a half away and the equipment was still hand drawn at this time.

There was a steam horn on the former Electric Light Building on Carleton Street. Later on in the 1920's, the well remembered air horn was installed on the tower of the King Street Fire Station and who will forget that sound?? For a number of years the city hall clock was connected to the system so that it struck the number of the Fire Alarm Box that was pulled.

After the amalgamation of Devon & Fredericton a separate system was installed on the north side of the river and an air horn placed on the old Devon Fire Station just above the corner of Union and Gibson. This was later moved to the New Maclaren Ave. Fire Station in the early 1950's. Later on in the 60's this horn was discontinued and the entire system tied in to a new board and alarm center at the King Street Station.

As the famous old air horn started to wear and some stranger than usual sounds started coming out, its use was discontinued and the bells only were in use, until the King Street Fire Station was closed.

With the move to the new York Street Station the old system was scrapped in favor of the Emergency Reporting System provided by N. B. Telephone Co. Before the City had the dial system, Telephone fire alarms were given on the number 89

In 1973 with the amalgamation of the Greater Fredericton area, the Emergency reporting number 911 came into use for the entire area on calls for Fire, Police, Ambulance and Poison Control.

(Click here for the story on 911 in Fredericton)

During the next few years N. B. Tel continued to upgrade the system. In the course of this, the telephone call boxes which had been placed at strategic areas on the south side of the river in 1971 were removed, with all calls received by phone and dispatching done by radio from York St. Central Station. A tone alert system installed to alert all stations at the same time of a fire call in any section of the city.

Continuous changes are being made to meet the demands of the ever-changing times.