Wake County, NC shuts down all sirens

[Fireman61341]

I'm just pointing out fire sirens are a thing of the past 99% of the time. like the Bean High Pressure Pumper, rubber coats, or the local Funeral Home running EMS.

Shhh... don't say that too loud! We still use ours for calls from 6am to 11pm, and we've had pagers for years and plectrons before that.

We just got rid of our '68 IH with the Bean high pressure pump 5 years ago, worked great on grass fires.

[JasonC]

I've been without my pager a couple of times back when I was a volly firefighter and been alerted to an alarm by the local fire siren. Sirens are still important as a backup warning device. I know several members of the VFD who are frequently outside away from any pagers or radios, and I'm dang glad we still use the siren because that's how many members are alerted. In fact, the chief engineer never wears his pagers when he's in the village because he knows the siren will alert him.

However, the use of sirens does need to be mitigated. They don't need to blow at night, for EMS calls, for over a minute, etc. In the case of Wake county, its one of the fastest growing metro areas in the US and its population has doubled within the past 12 years, so the amount of new development there is high. All stations there usually have at least some paid personnel on duty, and only 3 stations in the county still sounded their sirens when this mandate came into effect. This makes about 5 counties in NC who do not have any working fire sirens anymore.

[E712]

In my neck of the woods they did a study few years back to see how necessary the fire sirens are, they found after a two month period with the sirens shut off that the response times increased and the number of people responding diminished, wonder if they will find the same to be true?

[Fireman61341]

I've been without my pager a couple of times back when I was a volly firefighter and been alerted to an alarm by the local fire siren. Sirens are still important as a backup warning device. I know several members of the VFD who are frequently outside away from any pagers or radios, and I'm dang glad we still use the siren because that's how many members are alerted. In fact, the chief engineer never wears his pagers when he's in the village because he knows the siren will alert him.

Exactly... I've had quite a few times when I was mowing the lawn, on my way home from work without my pager, or even in the bathroom (you can hear it inside pretty well), and the only way I knew there was a call was from the siren.

[kb4mdz]

I'm really on the fence about this one; and I live in Wake County.

I grew up in a small town in Western New York State, (Perrysburg) and the volly FD always had a noon siren. Always. I think it's a nice touch of nostalgia/whatever you want to call it. (that was in the 60's & 70's). Course, back then, everyone who worked at the garage across the street from the fire house was also a FD member; made for real easy access to personell!!

So, I think it's sad when areas discontinue the practice, either of the noon blow, or blowing the siren for real fire calls.

On the other hand, as Jason alluded, this is one of the fastest growing areas. Most of the growth has been in the (previously) 'rural' areas where the VFD's thrived. Raleigh, and its 'little sister' Cary, (that'll piss off my Cary's town fathers!) have for years had paid staff, and I don't recall any of their fire houses having sirens at them. But the other depts, which previously were volly, have in the last few years been getting staffed by paid personell. It's in large part due to the residents not working in the town they live; many live in one suburb, but work in our (glorious) Research Triangle Park, aka RTP. So they're not around to hear the siren, and also have jobs where they can't just drop & go

Me, personally, to the people who complain: The fire dept. has been there a lot longer than your house! You shoulda known the fire house was there before you bought! If you don't want the noise, then MOVE or shut your whiney mouths! Wahh, wahh, wahh.

(I've heard a story about New York City's Mayor Ed Koch, when confronted with complaints about jet noise from LaGuardia airport, said basically "Too bad! If you bought the house, you knew the airport was nearby! If you don't want it, sell your house to deaf people & move out!!)

Additionally, this leaves two types of sirens for active use; Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant (used to be Thunderbolts, as discussed on this board previously, now Whelen stacks), and the City of Raleigh's Flood Warning Sirens, part of the watershed areas on the south side of the City. Harris Plant is comparatively far from downtown Raleigh, at the southwestern edge of the county. The Flood sirens, on the other hand, are mostly in & around moderately residential and light industrial areas of southern Raleigh. But I would hazard a guess that to most people, they are visually invisible - they exist, but don't enter peoples' consciousness. And I bet not many people who even notice them even know what they are for, or what to do when they hear them.

Oh, and the new-fangled Campus Warning Systems; I believe it's ATI at NC State University, and I know it's a Federal MOD5020 at Meredith College. Don't know about the other colleges in town; St. Augustines, Shaw University or Peace College.

Coming back around to the subject, I think it's important that sirens stay a part of the community; as part of a multi-tier approach to alerting, (TV, radio, Weather Radio, pagers, etc.) and working that into a sense of community bonding and shared knowledge. Another reason the whiners p*ss me off! It's all about them and them alone!!

rant mode off.

[Charlie Davidson]

I really think they should have just asked them to use them for severe weather only and not fire calls.. instead of forcing them to permanently shut them down by lock and key.

[Travis]

I'll say to that what I say to Lubbock and other large cities who choose not to have outdoor warning devices on purpose: "Tick-Tock."

[Rheems1]

My karma may take a hit on what I am about to post but here goes.

This is 2010 not 40 years ago. As much as I love sirens and the sound, with pagers (now some that has a display window) and cell phones, IMO it is not necessary to be runniing the the siren for calling volunteers. Most FD's stopped the practice back in the late 70's and early 80's when pagers became the norm. Very, very few FD's here in Michigan continue the the practice. Pagers slowly but steady made the "fire siren" a thing of the past. I can see a few (very few) where it may be needed with the poorest of poor Fire Depts that have no access or funds to have a working pager system.

The reporter of the article must be a young kid. "Now that homes are closer to Fire Stations" is a poor excuse for complaints. LOL, most Fire Stations running the sirens are in the middle of homes built when the bucket brigade, steamers and hand pulled hose carts were responding to fires at the sound of the community fire bell. It's nothing new and those houses have been there since time was.The reason for more complaints is becuse the once in a blue moon structure fire form years past is now replaced by the siren wailing many times a month for the next ems call.

Tradition is nice but times change. Firefighters don't wear rubber coats and hip boots anymore either. Running the sirens for the hell of it or becuse we always did it only seeds more resistance to upgrades of public warning siren systems. I firmly believe that outdoor sirens are the best way and the qucikest warning for public notification of impending danger. But with the technology that has been around for the past 40 years in most places running the "fire siren" is more about tradition than actual need and only adds to complacancy of the public when sirens sound for an actual emergency.

I just want to go on record as saying I officaly hate you now, you said firefighters don't wear rubber coats and hip boots anymore like it was from the dark ages... when I started in the fire service I wore a rubber coat and hip boots. You have just pointed out to me that I am now an old man and for that reason I am going to nail your karma down!! LOL J/K Your post is well written and thought out and I agree with you on this TO A DEGREE. Where I am from orignally the sirens were needed as we had a huge population of Amish, the Amish can't/won't carry pagers so the only way for them to know about calls was the siren. The sirens still do serve a useful purpose in othe respects too, if you are out cutting your grass you might not have your pager but you will hear the siren (if you can stop the lawn mower). Sirens do not need to be blown for EMS calls or EMS assist calls, that would get annoying and is really not needed. Sirens are a dying traditon though and they are not as useful as they once were, plus as was pointed out.. back in the day we were running 90 to 100 calls a year... now we are doing 800 or so a year... that is a long time for the siren to blow!!

[JasonC]

I'm really on the fence about this one; and I live in Wake County.

I remember back in the late 90's Wake county was chock full of sirens (many 3t22's down in Holly Springs, Apex, Fuquay-Varina, and Garner) that still sounded. The old Yrac/Western Wake VFD station right outside of downtown Cary still has a model 5 and another dual head siren and that station and it's up for sale. It 's definitely is sad to see though as the sirens in the past 10 years have been obliterated from that county, but its just from the population explosion. There were only 3 sirens left sounding though, SD10 (Fairview), Darley/GCS model 5 (swift creek), and either a model 5 or Sentry 3v8 (New Hope).


The original Cary fire dept was volly and I believe they used the siren all the way up until the 80's. Carpenter VFD and Morrisville station 1 also used to have sirens back in the day (Carpenter's fire district was annexed by Cary and Morrisville and ceased to exist a few years ago). Durham county also has no fire sirens (although it never had more than a few in years past, there's an unused model 5 behind Parkwood station 2 and 3T22 at Bethesda that I dont think is used. Eno took its Darley STH10 down a few years ago, and Bahama trashed its siren when they built their new station.). Orange county has 2 STH10s in 2 of the rural districts. Its funny both Wake and Mecklenburg (Charlotte) are having huge population explosions, yet Meckenburg county VFD's are having their sirens refurbished and sounding again (thanks idk6000!!).

Strong county level governments with large control over the fire districts are the biggest reasons for VFD's with no sirens. Most counties that don't have sirens are the ones where the county itself established fire departments back in the early 80s (Person, Stokes, Currituck, Tyrell...all are very rural). NC counties that do not have any working fire sirens are: Wake, Durham, Currituck, Tyrell, and possibly Stokes, New Hanover, Forsyth, Hoke, and Person. The rest of the counties that I've been through have a good abundance of sirens.

[r4tbolts]

It's all good Dave, you have a few years on me. I only date back to hip boots, and sling-packs ; )

I too have seen the siren on the station slowly go from sounding for all fires 24/7,to daytime only, to only 3 days a week at noon, to Halloween curfew, then no siren at all when the new fire station was built.

Jason, why doesn't the county use these deactivated sirens for weather warnings? Seems like the purdent thing for the powers that be to do as long as they are working.