Detroit's Under-Funded Fire Departments Use a Soda Can For a Fire Alarm

[madokie]

Where absent money leaves gaps, ingenuity fills in. Nowhere is that more true than in Detroit's fire departments, where, as Detroit Free Press reporter Tresa Baldas shows us, a soda can full of jangling coins and screws alerts the Motor City's long-suffering heroes when there's an emergency.

The system is brilliantly simple: A soda can full of rattling metal is balanced on top of the fire department's printer at the end of the tray. When the printer spits out an emergency alert, the paper knocks over the can. The crash of the can hitting the floor tells firefighters that it's time to suit up.

As Baldas reports, some departments get even more creative, setting up systems where the printout knocks over a weight that flips the switch on a doorbell ringer. Others replace the rattling can with a length of pipe, making a clanging wind-chime noise when the printout knocks it to the floor.

Detroit's 38 firehouses have been using these improvised alarms for years, a fact made public during testimony this week at the city's bankruptcy trial. None of the city's fire departments have the modern alarm systems seen in most American firehouses, where a series of tones and an automated voice tell firefighters the nature of the alarm.

http://gizmodo.com/detroits-under-funded-fire-departments-use-a-soda-can-f-1631409347

[daleanime]

1. Kick....

[fishwax]

2. wow. smh.

[littlemissmartypants]

3. Annoyingly uplifting. nt

[littlemissmartypants]

4. Kicking.

Interesting post, madokie.

Thanks!



~ Lmsp

[ReRe]

5. K&R for ingenuity!

What country is this again? Seems like I keep waking up in a unrecognizable place.
This is NOT progress, people. This society is going backwards!

[1dogleft]

6. It sounds

like something you would see in a cartoon. I have a hard time believing it is true really. Are the fire trucks like a "Flintstone" vehicle (foot powered)

[KG]

7. thank god theres plenty of dough for the MIC.

[mfcorey1]

8. Damn shame!!!!

[madokie]

9. Yes its a damn shame

the rich need to be made to pay their fair share.
the rest of us are paying a larger share of our earnings than they are and it needs to be stopped. Everyone has to eat, live and be clothed and that is a fixed cost but with us its a larger percentage of our intake than it is with the rich. Today we'll spend a good 100 plus bucks at the grocery story for this week and we'll be paying 9.8% taxes on that. That 100 plus dollars is a much larger percentage of our income than it is for the rich.

[dsc]

10. I used to watch Emergency back in the 70's

and they had those alarms back then. I am just amazed at this.

[madokie]

12. Amazing what I've missed in life by not watching much TV

I'm all the time reading references to something that was on a tv show or in a movie and I have not a clue to some of them. Likewise with a lot of books. When I read I read physics books or manuals or how to's etc rather than a novel or a bio. I'm not interested in the others so I don't bother but I see and realize that I do and have missed a lot because of it. Yet then I can see in many situations where I know something because of my studying what I am interested in reading. Any and all books can be a learning situation I realize that and to be more rounded in my knowledge I should get out more. In real life people are forever saying to me you sure seem to be a knowledgeable person, what did you do for a profession. Anyways no big deal except maybe someone can better understand where I come from when I write some of the replies I make.
I'm just happy that the admins and you my fellow DU'rs put up with me and allow me to continue to be a part of this great website.

man o man I'm sure long winded sometimes, huh

[dsc]

13. I was just pointing out how old that technology really is

it was likely cutting edge back then as it was a huge feature of the show but still it has been nearly 40 years since that show first aired.

[rhett o rick]

11. As Detroit goes, so goes the nation. nm