Education - FDNY History

A Quick History of the FDNY - by Peter Rothenberg and Geoff Giglierano
Chapter 1: Begining With a Blaze	Chapter 8: The Process of Professionalization
Chapter 2: The First Fire Engines	Chapter 9: Faster and Better in a Changing City
Chapter 3: Competition	Chapter 10: Covering More Ground
Chapter 4: Hear the Loud Alarm Bells	Chapter 11: Firefighting Starts Becoming a Science
Chapter 5: Pumpers and Politics	Chapter 12: Larger Events Affect the Department
Chapter 6: Decline of the Volunteer System	Chapter 13: FDNY and Times of Social Upheaval
Chapter 7: Volunteer Department's Demise	Chapter 14 The Job Goes On

Chapter 4: Hear the Loud Alarm Bells

"O the fireman's joys!
I hear the alarm at the dead of night,
I hear bells, shouts! I pass the crowd, I run!
The sight of the flames maddens me with pleasure."
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

A central fire bell for New York City was placed in the cupola of City Hall on May 17, 1830. By 1850 the city was divided up into eight fire districts, each with a watch tower and alarm bell. The number of strokes of the bells indicated in which district a fire was burning.

Telegraph wires connected all the towers by 1851 and by 1853 a system of ringing bells inside firehouses began to be established. However it was not until 1857 that firefighters were officially encouraged to sleep in quarters so as to be ready to answer an alarm.