Fire Department personnel at work in the San Diego Fire Alarm Communications Building on Marston Point. Fire Chief Louis Almgren and Assistant Chief John E. Parrish worked closely with Alarm Superintendent J. W. Collins in 1926 to design and set up a state of the art, modern fire alarm telegraph communications center. Operations started in 1928. The city moved its fire alarm communications network into the new city hall complex downtown and closed down the old fire alarm station forever in 1970.