The familiar red fire alarm box that has been a fixture on every other street corner in New York City is being phased out, with many of them being disconnected in many neighborhoods. The city has decided that calling 911 is the best response when a fire breaks out, despite the paucity of public phones in some areas. Many of the fixtures were installed in the first few years of this century. On the left is a typical fire alarm box with a handle. Pulling the handle activates an alarm in the nearest fire station.
More recent models feature a speaker in which the caller can alert police or firemen.
This is the prototypical NYC fire alarm, that has a lit torch sculpture at its apex that I always thought resembled a red ice cream cone. A rare old NYC stoplight is in the background. While most standalone fire alarm boxes in NYC boast either a decorative torch at their apexes that resembles an ice cream cone, or are rectangular in shape, there are a few very rare exceptions. The one on the left can be found in the Fresh Meadows housing complex in Queens, and is the only one of its kind, as far as I can tell. Another Gamewell is on a pole near the Nassau County line, at 76th Avenue and 270th Street.