When walking along the corridors of hospitals, schools, or office buildings, have you ever noticed those small red boxes mounted on the corridor walls, usually near the fire exits? These are the fire alarm pull stations. Almost all buildings in the country, especially the larger ones, have these fire alarm pull stations.

If you are in the hallway of a building, and you notice thick smoke coming out from one of the doors, you know you have to call the fire department right away. You can call them on the phone of course, but you will still have to talk to the operator, and you have to give your location.

Sometimes, especially if you are in an unfamiliar building, you will not know the address. At times you won't even find a phone quickly enough. A faster and surer way of notifying the fire department is through the fire alarm pull station.

Fire alarm pull stations are located on every floor of the building, usually near the fire exits. All you have to do is pull on the handle. And because the fire alarm pull station is hooked to the fire department, they can immediately dispatch help to your address without any questions.

There are many different versions of fire alarm pull stations these days. The traditional ones are still the most common, where you just pull down a knob. There are many other variations on how to activate the fire alarm pull stations, especially the newer models.

But no matter how you set it off, once you do, a fire alarm pull station will immediately notify the fire department of your emergency, and send help to you right away.

Because the fire alarm pull stations are very easy to use, it is also very easy to activate them accidentally, and precautions must be taken to avoid these mistakes. This is why a lot of fire alarm pull stations are encased in glass containers to avoid unintentional activation.

Additionally, you may notice that all fire alarm pull stations are placed on levels higher than a child's reach so they won't have a chance to play with the levers. For more info see http://www.firealarmguide.com/Articles/Fire_Alarm_Batteries.php on Fire Alarm Batteries.

The fire alarm pull station, while it is connected to the fire department, is a separate device from the rest of the fire alarm system in a building. Pulling the lever in the fire alarm pull station will not do anything besides summon the firefighters. It will not even turn on the sprinklers and sirens in the building. This will have to be done by the fire monitoring team using the control panel of the fire alarm system.