It's Phred's Boots!!!

[Cinder & Smoke]

As Chuck points out, "Bells" have always been important to the Fire Service. They are still used by many departments to sound out, inside the fire stations, the identification number of street alarm boxes...

When a citizen "pulls" the handle on an alarm box, an elaborate system of punced tapes and bells punch out and sound out the "box number" in stations all over the city. Pull box #234, and the bells strike out [** *** ****]. Firefighters in stations that are "first due" on box 234 start mounting their apparatus as soon as they hear the first two strokes of the "Bells" followed by a pause; the next two digits in the series of bell strokes tells them "where" the box is - corner of First & Main. In a busy department, trucks know axactly where they're going and are pulling out onto the street by the time the second "round" of bells begins repeating the box number. The next step is...

<< puttin the fire out!

The other common use of "Bells" in the Fire Service is during funerals ~ The bell tolls out [***** ***** *****] for box 5-5-5, the Firefighter's Last Alarm...