By Rick Pfeiffer
The Niagara Gazette
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. After decades of decline, a pair of Falls Fire Department alarm bells are now shinning like a new dime.
“I went to look at them (Tuesday morning) and as I drove up the sun was hitting them and I could see them shinning a quarter of a mile away,” retired Falls Fire Capt. Mark Gray said. “They’re awesome, they really are.”
The two historic alarm bells were returned to their places in the Falls Fire Department’s Memorial Park, next to the Royal Avenue Fire Hall, early Monday morning. The bells were placed on new pedestals and by midday, the now electrified instruments were chiming loud and clear.
“I think it’s awesome,” Fire Chief Tom Colangelo said, shouting over the ringing of the bells. “They’re like church bells -- big church bells.”
The larger of the two cast-iron bells, weighing in at a hefty 1-ton, once hung in the tower of Firehouse No. 3 on Niagara Avenue. The smaller bell, a mere half-ton, was rescued from the old LaSalle Fire Department bell tower at Buffalo Avenue and 71st Street.
The bells were whisked away in early July and taken to McShane Bell Foundry in Glen Burnie, Md. to be refurbished. The goal had been to have the bells back in time for the fire department’s annual 9/11 memorial service.
“It was a big effort, by a lot of people and it was worth it,” Colangelo said.
The effort was spear-headed by Gray, his last official act as fire captain. The bells left town to be refurbished the day before he retired.
When the bells tolled again on Monday. Gray was moved by the sound.
“It sends a chill up you spine,” he said. “There’s so much history behind the bells and you know (firefighters) are so traditional. What we’ll be using them for now, memorial services and other ceremonies, it will make them special.”
Alarm bells are an iconic part of the history of many fire departments. The Falls bells were used back when volunteers provided fire protection to the city.
When flames were spotted, the bells would toll to alert the volunteers. They continued to toll from 1895 until 1923, when they were retired for more modern means of communication.
The bells were briefly “lost” but then recovered and had been resting in the Fire Department Memorial Park until Gray began organizing the project to refurbish them. On Monday, as they were tested, the bells rang loud and clear and the cast iron reverberated with every strike of the clapper.
Gray had begun researching the history of the bells and discovered that larger bell had originally been cast in 1895 at the McShane foundry.
Established in 1859 and still in operation, when Gray went to visit the foundry, he discovered that there was still a record of the order of the bell, hand-written on yellowed paper, contained in a dust-covered ledger,
William Parker, whose family has run the business all these years, was excited by the opportunity to put the bells back in service.
“It sounded like an amazing project to us,” Parker said. “Particularly since 9/11, we’ve been working with fire departments around the country on projects like this.”
Parker noted the larger of the two Falls fire bells is the same size as the Liberty Bell.
Each bell is unique and has its own specific musical note,” Parker said. “They’re like a fine cello, they are historical musical instruments.”
Parker promised the bells would come back looking exactly as they did when they were first hung in the fire hall.
“They sound, today, the same way they did when they came out of the mold,” he said.
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(c)2014 Niagara Gazette (Niagara Falls, N.Y.)
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