Old fashioned wildfire alert box?

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Growing up in the high desert, we had this electric fire map thing. It was a big, heavy metal box, I think it was manufactured perhaps in the late 1960s, but used in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. It was big on the tabletop, roughly the size of a 1980s boom box. It was stored away during the off season, but brought out and turned on during very dry weather.

There were rows of little tiny dot sized lights in a grid formation. The lights would change color. My elders were able to tell if a fire was nearby, by what pattern the lights were in.

We weren't even supposed to have one, but my father, grandfather, and cousins had all worked a lot as volunteer firefighters, and it was given to my grandfather by the fire chief.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about? What is this device called? Can I see a photo of one, to see if what you're describing is what I remember?

 

[Judge]

Was this an AC or DC powered device?

A portable wildfire detection sensor?

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Was this an AC or DC powered device?

Um. It was plugged in. I don't think we were allowed to use the phone while it was plugged in. So some old fashioned form of internet before internet existed sorta.

Steel, painted a sort of light forest green.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Another important piece of information, is that they could tell if and where a fire was anywhere in our little mountain valley by which tiny lights changed color in the grid.

 

[Judge]

Infrared Fire Detection System?

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Infrared Fire Detection System?

I dunno. Do you have a photo of one?

It would look sort of like an old boom box with a bunch of toggle switches on one side. And a square grid of tiny lights where the tape deck and dial would be.

 

[FilterFreq]

Something like this?

Apparently there were a lot of rudimentary devices with a bunch of heat and smoke sensors on them (hey, a lot of us could make one of those). I can't really see what's going on with the face of this one but it might be a more modernized version

 

[Rodafina]

@Yeshuasdaughter
Could it have been something a neighbor or family member built or was it something that you could purchase at a store?

I like a good mystery.

 

[Judge]

The images of such devices I found did not seem to reflect the physical descriptions provided by the OP. Leaving me quite baffled! Though as posted above, more modern devices certainly exist, but appear to be considerably smaller and obviously digital as opposed to previously being analogue.

Disconcerting to realize that in my formal education in various aspects of "fire science" as an insurance underwriter, we were never apprised of such technology back in the 80s and 90s.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

It wasn't for personal use. It was official forestry type stuff.

Not a heat or smoke detector.

The little grid of lights were a wildfire map. One little dot in the lower left quadrant was roughly our mountain.

It was inspected by the volunteer chief every year. Part of rural life. My grandmother would make calls when certain areas of the map lit up.

I saw one again in about 2006-ish. I don't remember what it was called. I was just hoping to have a name to the box.

I was hoping someone here would know. But it is all right.

 

[Judge]

The little grid of lights were a wildfire map.

Do you mean this literally (graphically) ? Could the map (paper or otherwise) be changed or was it static indicative of a specific location?

I have seen devices that operated with illuminated images on top of an actual digitized map, but they seemed indicative of more current technology using LCD displays. But trying to envision an analogue version of something similar from years ago....I'm just drawing a blank.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Do you mean this literally (graphically) ? Could the map (paper or otherwise) be changed or was it static indicative of a specific location?

I have seen devices that operated with illuminated images on top of an actual digitized map, but they seemed indicative of more current technology using LCD displays. But trying to envision an analogue version of something similar from years ago....I'm just drawing a blank.

It was a rectangular metal box, hooked up to the phone line. And the lights showed where wildfires were in the valley.

Not something for personal use. Official. Fire watch type thing for Dept of Forestry. We were up on a hill, and elders had firefighting experience.

I was born in 1980. So, it was used in an official sense in our home throughout the 80s until the early 90s to alert people. We weren't "supposed" to have it, but it was necessary, and grandparents were given permission to use it, in a semi-official way, to know when to alert people.

The volunteer fire dept was not always manned. And the city fire dept didn't know anything about our valley. When there was a fire and the city fire depts came out, I had to play at the end of the driveway to make sure that the city firefighters would know people lived here. It was scary as all get out. But it was how things were done.

 

[Judge]

It was a rectangular metal box, hooked up to the phone line. And the lights showed where wildfires were in the valley.

Not something for personal use. Official. Fire watch type thing. We were up on a hill, and elders had firefighting experience.

I was born in 1980. So, it was used in an official sense in our home throughout the 80s until the early 90s to alert people. We weren't "supposed" to have it, but it was necessary, and grandparents were given permission to use it, in a semi-official way, to know when to alert people.

The volunteer fire dept was not always manned. And the city fire dept didn't know anything about our valley. When there was a fire and the city fire depts came out, I had to play at the end of the driveway to make sure that the city firefighters would know people lived here. It was scary as all get out. But it was how things were done.

Ok, but tell me about your use of the term "map". Do you mean that literally or figuratively? And if it was an actual map, was it printed on a plastic screen, or a paper map over a screen with lights?

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Ok, but tell me about your use of the term "map". Do you mean that literally or figuratively? And if it was an actual map, was it printed on a plastic screen, or a paper map over a screen with lights?

Neither.

A grid of lights on a big metal box. And the little lights, smaller than Christmas lights. Like little beads, each one was symbolic of an area in our valley.

No real map. No paper.

Just a big metal box with a grid of closely clustered tiny lights in the middle. There was a topographical map up on the wall, that corresponded with the lights.

There were several times, even as a little girl around middle school age, where I had to sit doing homework, next to the box, and tell my father or some other elder, while they were working outside, if the cluster of lights lit up, that symbolized our mountain and the area around it.

 

[Judge]

Neither.

A grid of lights on a big metal box. And the little lights, smaller than Christmas lights. Like little beads, each one was symbolic of an area in our valley.

No real map. No paper.

Just a big metal box with a grid of closely clustered tiny lights in the middle. There was a topographical map up on the wall, that corresponded with the lights.

There were several times, even as a little girl around middle school age, where I had to sit doing homework, next to the box, and tell my father or some other elder, while they were working outside, if the cluster of lights lit up, that symbolized our mountain and the area around it.

What kind of markings or gradations pertained to the small lights? I've seen countless such things in my search, but the images were never clear enough to read the print corresponding to the lights.

Hmmmm. Thanks for mentioning the lights corresponding to a printed map. Sounds a little more familiar, apart from the fact that this was not a consumer-based device.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

What kind of markings or gradations pertained to the small lights? I've seen countless such things in my search, but the images were never clear enough to read the print corresponding to the lights.

Hmmmm. Thanks for mentioning the lights corresponding to a printed map. Sounds a little more familiar, apart from the fact that this was not a consumer-based device.

No markings. It was a big box, with toggle switches and in the center was a grid of lights.

No print. The lights symbolized coordinates on a topographical map.

 

[Judge]

No markings. It was a big box, with toggle switches and in the center was a grid of lights.

No print. The lights symbolized coordinates on a topographical map.

Gotcha. Specific grid coordinates. Obsolete, modem-based device.

Any chance this device may have been something explicit to the US Dept. of Forestry? I bet they'd know what you are talking about. Sounds right up their alley. I may have already found such a device in the image section of Duck Duck Go Go, but I may have also gone right past it!

LOL...this feels like we're all playing that old tv show, "What's My Line?"

 

[Streetwise]

Growing up in the high desert, we had this electric fire map thing. It was a big, heavy metal box, I think it was manufactured perhaps in the late 1960s, but used in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. It was big on the tabletop, roughly the size of a 1980s boom box. It was stored away during the off season, but brought out and turned on during very dry weather.

There were rows of little tiny dot sized lights in a grid formation. The lights would change color. My elders were able to tell if a fire was nearby, by what pattern the lights were in.

We weren't even supposed to have one, but my father, grandfather, and cousins had all worked a lot as volunteer firefighters, and it was given to my grandfather by the fire chief.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about? What is this device called? Can I see a photo of one, to see if what you're describing is what I remember?

Was it like but not exactly this?

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Was it like but not exactly this?

no, but thank you.

 

[Au Naturel]

It sounds like a central station would send an alert signal to all local phone lines. If you had a box plugged into the phone line, it would get that signal and set off the fire alert function. Data would follow to light the lights appropriately. You couldn't be on the phone because the signal could not get through if you were.

It sounds vaguely like how an old fax would work. It could even be an acoustical modem. (Yes, I am old enough to have used one.) Do you remember any sound it made?