A pull-box fire alarm, right, and the intersection chart, left, were used to find locations of fires. Some were still in use in 1990. (The Vicksburg Post/CHAD APPLEBAUM)

[07/02/01] Smoke begins to fill a house as flames start to lick at the wood frame. A frightened resident runs to a metal box mounted on a utility poll, pulls the handle and waits.

As late as 1990, this was one way to let firefighters in Vicksburg know a home was burning.

Fire Chief Kevin Westbrook said that when he started with the department in 1979 there were 39 “pull boxes” scattered around the city.

“One of my first jobs with the department was to go around and check the copper wires on the boxes to make sure they were hooked up properly,” he said. “It was pretty much the telephone or the pull box to let us know you need us.”

During the past week, some of the wires Westbrook once maintained were removed from utility poles around the city.

“We noticed some of the wires were still there and decided to go ahead and remove them,” he said.

The boxes, which were installed around 1903, invoke memories of horse-drawn carriages and a time when many city residents didn’t have telephones.

“At the time, this was really the latest and greatest way available for people to get the help they needed,” he said.

By the mid-1970s most people could just pick up the phone and dial 911 to get emergency assistance, and with the start-up of emergency 911 services in 1990, the boxes began to come down.

One was placed in a museum at Central Fire Station on Walnut Street and the rest are in storage.

“These boxes were used not just here but by fire stations all over the country,” Westbrook said. “They are really an important part of our history,” Westbrook said.

The front of the square-shaped box opened to reveal a handle that was pulled down to summon help, and then an alarm would sound at Central Fire Station.

For example, if box 23 at Adams and Grove streets was pulled, a paper ticker would began to hum.

The machine would punch two holes in the paper and, after a couple of spaces, three more holes would be punched.

Then a large chrome bell would ring a total of five times, with the same space between the groups rings.

“After you knew what box the alarm had come from, you would go there and usually the person would still be standing at the alarm box or you could see the smoke,” Westbrook said.

He said even though he never answered a call that originated from the boxes, there were some false alarms.

“Every now and then you would have some kids pull the handle and then run away,” Westbrook said.

With the technology available today, the pull box won’t be making a return, Westbrook said, but it did serve its purpose.

“It had its time and now it is in the museum where it belongs,” he said.

One thing Westbrook is sure he doesn’t want to see again is the bell that would ring to signal what box had been activated.

“I had to polish that bell every day and then wind it back up just like you would an alarm clock,” he said. “It got to where I really hated to see that bell.”