FARMINGTON – Long before the days of 911 and high-tech pagers, a very loud whistle sitting atop the fire station was one way firefighters were called to duty.

Numbered fire alarm boxes were placed around town, fire Chief Terry Bell said. Depending on the number of blasts, firefighters would know the general location of the fire and respond there looking for smoke or the person who pulled the alarm. Otherwise, they depended on Vertie Allen toning the department out after receiving a regular phone call, he added.

The department discontinued using the whistle system more than 20 years ago but left it atop the roof of the station on Farmington Falls Road.

The last time it was used was in the early 1990s, Bell said, when longtime Fire Department member Robert Oliver was laid to rest.

The whistle now has a new home.

This week, it was placed atop the roof of the Public Safety Department’s building on the campus of the University of Maine at Farmington.

Seeking alternative notification methods for dire emergencies, UMF public safety director Ted Blais discussed the matter with Bell and then accepted the whistle on loan from the town’s fire and rescue department.

“It’s a huge cost savings for the university. The firemen took it down and brought it to the campus,” Blais said. The cost for the university was only a new air compressor and a crew to install the whistle and compressor, he added.

The whistle, run by an air compressor, will sound across the campus to alert students, even those on Prescott Field off Front Street in case of a serious emergency. When heard, students should take cover in a safe area and seek more information about the nature of the emergency, he said.

Just in case the Fire Department should ever need it, a special code will be set up for firefighters, Bell said. A code, like a five blasts, will alert them to report to the station, he added.

Forrest Spaulding, electronics technician at UMF, took the three, heavy whistles apart to clean them.

“The whistle doesn’t look large but it’s heavy,” Spaulding said.

The range of the whistle can vary depending on weather, but people in the downtown area will definitely hear it, Bell said.