Fire House Alarms

How many Fire Houses in NJ still have a steam engine tire hanging in front, to use as an alarm bell?
Al

i remember one in audubon up to a few yrs ago . they closed the firehouse though, and i dont know what happened to it.

There's one in Middletown, Route 35 southbound about 1 mile before Red Bank.

Ours was up until 1992 (Chatham Twp Fire Dept) when our building was torn down to build a larger firehouse on River Road. The steam engine tire is now affixed to the side of the building near the lower entrance on the rear of the building. We would have put it up, but due to the building's larger size, there was no place to hang it. I doubt it has seen use as an alarm bell in years as radio paging devices came out in the 60's and 70's and they used the sirens put in during the cold war before that (there is only one operational surviving siren in town).

There is one hanging in front of the fire house in Milford. I often wondered what it was for, now I know.

Cranbury, NJ re-hung theirs a few years ago when they built a new building, article in the local weekly paper even listed what PRR loco the tire came from & how the young guy re-making the support frame was using Locust wood just like the original frame due to it's rot resistance.

Another one hangs on Rt-130 in Washington Twsp [mercer cnty]

By me, Califon, Hunterdon County, and Chester, Morris County. I've seen more around the area, but don't recall specifically where.

Pt. Pleasant Beach, Ocean Fire Co. No. 1, used to have one. Don't know if they still do.

Point Pleasant Beach's is still there. Also Brick has one in front of the Herbertsville Fire Co. on Herbertsville Road.

Sprigfield (Union County) installed theirs in front of their new station:

http://springfield-nj.com/gov/fire/

Used to be one at the corner of Blanch Ave and Summit St. in Norwood. Used to sit in it when I was a tiny kid, never knew what it was made from. Thanks, guys!

...were they all steam locomotive driving wheel tires or were some wagon wheel tires? Or something else?

Re: Springfield--Don't know, actually. I just assumed they were all the same. (Not a fire department buff).

For the most part they were old locomotive wheels. The fire company I'm a member of had one in the early 1900's, it was replaced with an electric siren.

In Ringwood, the next town up from me, the Stonetown Fire Company has a loco wheel hung in front of their firehouse.

Joe P

I beleive Lavalette in Ocean county has one in front of their firehouse.

Doug