Wail sirens dogs starts dogs howling

[medevac]

not meaning to start an argument or drag things off track, but;

shouldnt be on the truck without FULL ppe...

if you are there as a CFS member then you should be in ppe no matter how far away from the incidenty you are..

[Alan (Big Al)]

Sooo GO's just wearing vest's, or SO's running around in a PBI jacket nothin else, they never get stepped on and they should??
But anywho in the past and no need to drag this topic further off track so back to topic.

Only use sirens when and if absolutly necessary at night.

Does anybody know any brigades who use their station siren all hours still?? we used to until 5 years ago and only ever recieved one complaint. And that was from someone who lived nearly 4km from the station.

[medevac]

Sooo GO's just wearing vest's, or SO's running around in a PBI jacket nothin else, they never get stepped on and they should??

yes i believe they should be in full PPE also.


yeah, although i wish it did not, our siren runs day or night upon reciept of a page from MFS Commcen... all hours it runs for 30 seconds....
we've never had an issue though, and the public seems to approve, but i still believe it should be daylight hours only.

[Alan (Big Al)]

We have people that lived next it for 10 years and never once complained in the slightest, were trying to go back to using it during the day but we have to set it off manually as SOCC wil only do it if requested by alerts operators

[Pipster]

In my brigade, we have instigated a policy for this fire season to set the station siren off for every call involving a report of a bushfire in our area...regardless of time of day or night...

We also set our siren off for urgent calls, where crews are required ASAP - things like reports of serious crash, building fires etc..... ( and the siren becomes important when at least 9 active fire fighters often miss the pager messages, due to pager coverage issues...but that's another story)

The only "complaint" we had about our siren was from a lady who asked that when we test it on a training night, that we don't make it after 8.30pm, as it wakes up her kids.....not really an unreasonable request!!

Pip

[Smokeydk]

If your in trouble...be it car accident or house fire....a siren sounds like christmas bells when its needed..

I was with Seaford at a recent car accident.......they do pretty well..

LOL...I rem seeing a Officer years ago driving a BWT in his jarmies and slippers to an incident..

Yep.....No ppe.no getting on truck.....and no sirens after 22:00 sounds good

[Robert-Robert34]

In my brigade, we have instigated a policy for this fire season to set the station siren off for every call involving a report of a bushfire in our area...regardless of time of day or night...

We also set our siren off for urgent calls, where crews are required ASAP - things like reports of serious crash, building fires etc..... ( and the siren becomes important when at least 9 active fire fighters often miss the pager messages, due to pager coverage issues...but that's another story)

The only "complaint" we had about our siren was from a lady who asked that when we test it on a training night, that we don't make it after 8.30pm, as it wakes up her kids.....not really an unreasonable request!!

Pip

Your brigade has the same instigated policy as my brigade does pip when it comes to a fire on any hot day including total fire ban days the thing who ever turns up at the station first has to get everything ready as well as activate the station siren to let the town know there is a fire somewhere

Although just before the alerts system was removed this was a couple years after i became a senior fire fighter everytime our pager sounded the station siren would go off at the exact same time but this only happened during day time hours and now we have to activate the station siren manually

We used to have the problem of a full brigade turn out after the power went off and came on again as this resulted in the siren going off right away once power was restored so thats why we have a battery hooked up to the main supply box so if the pwoer does go out the siren wont turn off as the battery will keep it going   

[5271rescue]

You know in this day and age the fire siren is still the best way of alert for the public and the brigade members as we all know the pagers are not 100% coverage and there are lots of dead spots. We test our siren on a Friday nite and use it during the day if low numbers show up now you say SOC will only set your siren off if the alrets member ask for it why not just have them program it to go of we your pagers do during the day?

[Alan (Big Al)]

I asked them if they could do that for our calls from 8am-8pm but was told that they wouldn't do it like that because they have to take other brigades who respond with us in to account, so was told that either the first person to the station gets on the radio and asks them to set it off, the first person sets it off manually from the station box or the alerts operators will have to ask for it each time??

[Pixie]

the first person sets it off manually from the station box

that sounds like it would be the best option then. as you would at least know that the station is open.

being urban, we don't have the luxury of a station siren. but one would be great to inform general public drivers that there may be a fire truck about to pull out...we almost had some idiot  drive into us yesterday arvo, they were probably thinking "f%&king pushy council truck trying to drive out in front of me...ohhh I can hear sirens, I wonder where the fire truck is?"

[5271rescue]

Dont know if you have seen it pixie but there is a new SOP on fire station sirens and you can now get these sirens installed back into stations. Just check with the group equipment officer or the region....

[Alan (Big Al)]

Yeah pixie you lot could with some warning lights on  commercial road. Either that or some huge airhorns your 24 has air horns doesn't it??

[Pixie]

We have control over the traffic lights on the corner of comercial and seaford (have never seen them used though), but a nice set of Flashing lights on seaford road would be good!! as that is where we have most of our problems with cars not wanting to let us out

[Ryan]

If you have the control of the lights then use it!

[bajdas]

We have control over the traffic lights on the corner of comercial and seaford (have never seen them used though), but a nice set of Flashing lights on seaford road would be good!! as that is where we have most of our problems with cars not wanting to let us out

Hopefully with the new development at Seaford Meadows the council will give you something extra to assist you. I live about ten minutes from the Seaford CFS station and the brigade has alot of respect within the local community.

[Alan (Big Al)]

Tell me ryan would you wnat to be on the phone with the transport mob in town asking for a certain set of lights to be changed?? Probably quicker just to get in the truck and drive.

[Ryan]

I thought having control would mean just pushing a button.

[Alan (Big Al)]

That would be sweet but no they have a map of the local lights and their code's and you ring a number and say i wan't blah blah light changed in htis direction and then it'd done for about 5 minutes or something??

[Pixie]

That would be sweet but no they have a map of the local lights and their code's and you ring a number and say i wan't blah blah light changed in htis direction and then it'd done for about 5 minutes or something??

BINGO...and that is why we never do it!!

[5271rescue]

not sure if there are any brigades here,but In victoria there are a Number of CFA/MFB stations that have a button they push just before the appliances turn out that turns the traffic lights to red or into red flashing so as the brigade can turn out.....No need to call VICROADS,,,,

[Camo]

Glen Osmond MFS have a button for the cross roads, port rush & mt barker rd intersection.

[CFS_Firey]

Glen Osmond MFS have a button for the cross roads, port rush & mt barker rd intersection.

Are you sure? Last I heard they had to ring up to get them changed... I believe SAMFS Comcen can change lights in the metro area too...

[filtered]

I asked them if they could do that for our calls from 8am-8pm but was told that they wouldn't do it like that because they have to take other brigades who respond with us in to account, so was told that either the first person to the station gets on the radio and asks them to set it off, the first person sets it off manually from the station box or the alerts operators will have to ask for it each time??

I'm lead to believe that if a brigade asks for their siren to be activated and they're part of a dual response, SOCC (or whatever they're called this week) will send a message out to the brigade that has requested it with URGMSG in it after the initial page has gone off (I've seen this a few times on the paging site).

I also believe there are brigades out there that have their siren linked to CFSRES, so it goes off with every response page received by the brigade. IIRC some Mt Lofty Group brigades do this...

If this is the case, you should be able to hook this up with a timer if you want, so it only activates between 0800 and 2000, for example.

Might be worth asking a few questions about the place...

[Camo]

Glen Osmond MFS have a button for the cross roads, port rush & mt barker rd intersection.

Are you sure? Last I heard they had to ring up to get them changed... I believe SAMFS Comcen can change lights in the metro area too...

The button was there when i had a tour back in 2002.

[Sam]

Is there not ruling that determines the time that you can use your siren? I thought i was ready something that said 08:00 to 20:00 or something? Our siren is on a timer which sets it to times near this.
It is controlled basically by the station controller, e.g CFSRES or URGMSG yuo can change it to suit and the same goes for door locks and so-on.