Forget the fire alarm! These firefighters rely on soda cans for alerts

[@PikachuG5]

Sorry about your house burning to the foundation. Our printer was out of paper.

[@j-bird1778]

The most Detroit thing I ever saw

[@chrisd7163]

what happens if someone forgets to load the printer?

[@spredelectric]

The printer beeps, and displays an "Tray 2 Load Letter" message. And the same person who is sitting at the computer would hear the beep and think "Oh, maybe I should load paper into the printer..." Or, is busy playing Solitaire, and maybe that's the problem....

[@SuperDetroit9]

@chris d;that just doesn't happen homes!! Anyway,there is a procedure enacted called"cot-watch"and the one who HAS cot watch monitors the printer,the radio,or the frickin' RED PHONE if the radios are down!!

[@aaronmichael7116]

@@SuperDetroit9 "the time is midnight, cot watch is in effect"..I rode with Squad 3 a ton back in 2000. And Engine 50. A few shifts at Squad 6, and one, only one, at Squad 4. I'm sure a ton has changed! I see big Todd the hockey player is an officer now. I'm so sorry to have read about Walter Harris. While I always seemed to have matched up with Unit 2, he always had a smile at shift change. And then there was the kid, Doogie, where I believe I met him at 50's. And I played hockey for Windsor Fire, so I had to take it easy on the boys if I wanted to keep riding along 😁 In fact, I recall Todd saying if I didn't let him win the face-off, I wasn't welcome back to 23's 😁 When I was on Squad 3, Unit 2,my boss was Terry Gayeski(spell wrong) I ended up going over only when Unit 2 was on. I hope every body's well. And Sophie has adjusted, did he get married?kids?

[@Real_Question_Marked]

Knowing it was a Faygo can shows how bad the poverty is...

[@SuperDetroit9]

@Commercial Critique;FOOL(arse)cretin,"FAYGO"is THE soft-drink of choice in "Tha' D"!! Right up there with "Vernors"and"Towne Club"!! Wanna' hazard a guess WHY you moron?!?

[@MrWolfSnack]

They can't even afford Barqs either! They have to drink Faygo!

[@thuntking]

+MrWolfSnack Faygo is extremely popular in Detroit/Michigan as its a local product.

[@connorcruz6249]

Faygo is delicious

[@gregistopal]

Dude for like 30 bucks at radio shack and basic electrical circuit knowledge you can make a little alarm for that fax maxhine

[@spredelectric]

Except...that isn't a fax machine, it's a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet. But, your point does stand, it wouldn't be difficult to write a program that sounds some kind of alarm or bell whenever the printer receives a print job. And since that printer is clearly attached to the computer, the fire call is being routed through the same computer, so why can't the computer display an alert or sound something, either via the computer speaker or through an external device?

[@TheLastHylianTitan]

i'd laugh if it wren't for the fact that people could die because of this cheap-ass system and the firefighters in this city who WANT to save and keep those people from danger probably have to be on edge, keep their voices/music lowered, or else they don't hear anything and people die because they were a little too loud to hear the alarm. i love this country, but i hate how it is run to the point that this becomes reality.

[@SuperDetroit9]

@The LastHylianTitan;actually MORE people die because Detroit firefighters use little"BEACH-made"35 lb sledgehammers to try to get through barred doors and windows,instead of the 75 and NINETY lb hammers the men of Laborers Local #334 use to get things done!! A dozen elderly people and children die each year because"weakback"first-responders can't get TO them fast enough"playing around"with lil' 35 lb sledgehammers!! If they had 75 lb or NINETY lb hammers on them ladder trucks,they'd knock an iron security door OFF its hinges with ONE hit,and conduct rescues instead of RECOVERIES!!

[@owensweetland342]

Modern technology.

[@FireAlarm2894]

horrible fire alarm system!!!👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎

[@thatonebitch405]

Wow...just wow

[@emtb9111]

This is such a disgrace for these brave men and women. Such a mismanagement of funds done in this city!

[@CallanMacAndie20]

UK, Ireland & Australia fire stations have a system like this (minus the pop can), if I got this right: Fire Control takes in the call & types out all the necessary details about the incident which is sent to the fire station & comes out via the teleprinter.

[@ElitesEngineering]

I mean you could program something, when a fax comes in sound an alarm. You can put some sort of a cheap ass Arduino sensor near the printer

[@densterr]

why they ask the people of Detroit for help isn't this a government issue ?

[@Nativewolf-qx3hl]

Bcuz the Feds money gose to help rich bankers on Wall Street and other people that don't need more money

[@aydinvideo]

"the firefighters have no computer systems!" -shows firefighters using multiple computers. /ok

[@wnytrashtrucks]

modern computer alert system dumbass is what they said

[@KamoCyde]

Looks like a computer that was retired by a school. They are usually donated once the schools upgrade.

[@danielrose1392]

"No computerized system, for getting emergency alarms". Yes they have computers, but they are useless to receive emergencies. They are sent to the station via fax.

[@spredelectric]

Except what is shown, what the pop can sits atop, isn't even a fax machine. It is a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printer. Connected to...the computer.

[@spredelectric]

That is a fairly common business computer desktop; my last several employers used the same or similar computers. Why? Because most of the computer processing is done on a server or mainframe; so the local computer does not need a whole lot. Anymore, having any type of external drive (floppy drive, CD-ROM/DVD-ROM) is undesirable; there is no real need for internal expansion slots anymore; no need for more than a single hard drive...so why buy a big tower? Most businesses don't need anything other than onboard graphics - they aren't running first player 3D games.

[@greenrefrigerator]

Christ almighty . . . even in our little podunk town back in the early 1980's we had to carry around those huge plectrons and we thought THAT was bad. Later on we got Motorola Minitor pagers and here I was thinking we were behind the times 35 years ago when these guys are using a goddamn soda can in 2015. Only in Detroit . . .

[@MrWolfSnack]

greenrefrigerator You started with nothing and then got everything as technology improved. Also your government paid for them. DFD started with everything and now everything is broken, so they essentially are back to nothing. Government has no money to buy them anything. And stuff that has been donated just sits around gathering dust in a warehouse waiting to be approved and distributed.

[@dragondancer1814]

And I thought it was crazy back when my husband and I ran with the county civil defense company that shared a firehouse with the county HazMat station! Our overhead doors didn't have automatic garage door openers until late 2000-until then, our method of operation was the manual chain (operated by a probie if one was around, otherwise we'd all fight over who got to run in and open the door when we were coming back from a call). The bunk room was on the loading dock behind the engines (the ready room, kitchen, and lounge were upstairs in the front part of the building), and the whole place was basically jerry-rigged by the guys. We only half joked that half the building was designed as intended, the other half cobbled together by us to get the place to work as intended. Sadly, the two companies were consolidated two months before 9/11, and in such a way that the majority of services that the Civil Defense company performed (ambulance transfers, flooding calls, event standbys, etc.) were eliminated. And yes, we had the plectrons and early Minitors too-I have some interesting memories of how cranky those things were! Still, it was a fun place and I have some great memories. I miss those guys!

[@shelbythibodeau5506]

That sounds so silly, it... it may just work!

[@EricWhiteTheGamer]

Folks this is why I do live in Detroit

[@mrq2044]

Now this is fuckin' sad...The DFD has the most fire calls in The US yet they are left without any modern equipment or up to date systems in the worst fire stations in America...

[@aguyghow9783]

All they need is a simple app on the computer to sound a steady tone ... don't they have any programmers? ... in Detroit?

[@SuperDetroit9]

Nothing new here;just shows the ingenuity of the firefighters!! There always WAS a"computer system". I used to record in the journal how each run was recieved. I'd write"CAD"for computer aided dispatch,,if the run came over the computer,and"Phone"if Central called us through the department line reporting a fire,and"Radio"if Central notified us of a fire over the radio!! There has just not always been a run-system which rang the bell automatically. Thus the need to have a man"on cot-WATCH"!! At the"Double Nickel"there was a metal pipe lying on the printer,instead of the pop cans they have here,and the piercing sound of this pipe hitting the floor could EASILY be heard clear UPstairs in the dorm,even without someone on watch to ring the bell!! Many a night,I'd hear the pipe hitting the floor down in the watchroom,and Mike Thornton would ask from the other side of the divider from my bed:"Was that the"pipe"man?!? I KNEW them fools over on Plymouth and Asbury Park weren't through settin'(stuff)on fire tonight!! Let's go,and this time YOU grab the line,because that lil'sorry trialman they sent over here,who tried to get Luther in trouble,aint worth a rusty DIME at a fire man!! It took him 40 minutes to get the last fire on Abington under control!!"Seconds later the cot-man would sound the alarm!! But in 2002"The Double Nickel" had a system installed where the alarm sounded AS the run came over the printer,eliminating the need for a man being"on watch"!!

[@loopi222]

Wow, this Earnest Goes To Detroit. Just wire something into fax cable, one of the leads must get energized.

[@lawrenceplays]

or the could hook up a motion detector to a ardwino and when it detects paper it's sounds a alarm. approx cost 40$

[@bruceradke922]

wow about a radio

[@TechOut]

What if the printer jams

[@slayslayslay]

@aydinvideo they clearly said no modern computer system for RECIEVING EMERGENCY ALERTS

[@spredelectric]

The computer clearly is receiving the alert, because the printer (not fax machine) is connected to the computer, and that printer has to receive the print job somehow - it doesn't just print stuff on its own, except for self tests. Just because it isn't a 21st century cloud-hosted computer system, doesn't mean it isn't functional or useful. Many companies still use computer programs designed to be run on 1960s era mainframes - because they are bulletproof and work. Whenever we had a problem it was usually with the graphical front-end, or some obscure mid-level server or the network - NOT the mainframe or the base software that ran the company.

[@blah979]

We need OCP.

[@sandman0127]

Id hate to see if it ran out of ink or a paper jam

[@johnerikson7094]

It’s a laser jet, so it uses toner, which lasts longer than an ink cartridge.

[@MrThenry1988]

Awesome. I love they are using their brains. Computers take your think away.

[@andrewhasty]

How can firefighters hear the pop can drop when the call comes in?

[@brentjmichael]

With their ears

[@emt5330]

There's always someone near the printer

[@maxclough8931]

'Merica

[@thekingoffunnyfaces]

If only that ALS money would go to something that really has a chance to save lives, like this.

[@MrFixer-mg1nf]

They could just simply plug a telephone into the fax line. When a fax comes in the phone rings. At work we have a fax machine and there is a telephone plugged in to the fax line. We do not get that many faxes so we some time use that as a second line to call out on. The ringer is turned off on that phone but we sometimes turn it on if we are waiting for a fax some we do not have to sit by the fax machine waiting. Most fax machines only "pick up" after the 3 or 4 ring. A simple telephone (tape the receive down so no one takes it off the hook or tries to make a call on it) and plug it into the fax line.

[@spredelectric]

That'd work...IF it were a fax machine. That's a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet. NOT a fax machine.

[@Biffo1262]

Good grief. Leaders in third world technology.

[@warrenw.1544]

What No ht there in the sta.

[@ndn2589]

This is like a 3rd world country

[@Andthereisthat]

Mostly Democrat ran city...

[@Avalanche2]

LOL, here you have it! The Democratic parties dream city!

[@antdude]

Still using Windows XP. How can they afford a Mac keyboard?

[@danielrose1392]

I am sure no one bought that keyboard with FD money.

[@spredelectric]

Good point. I can buy a very capable 104-key Windows keyboard for $10 at a local computer store. That Apple branded Mac keyboard was a lot more expensive.

[@DA1RSTMIKEKELSO]

i only care for our firefighters here even though when yo house on fire they take there time and let your sht burn i seen it happen so im not just commenting.... but the rest of our state workers crooked and keep money.. anyway Detroit vs Everybody