Use of fire sirens

[Mike]

1: How many brigades are still using fire sirens?

I know we still have it connected to fixed alarms, for major daytime incidents and sounding fire ban days. As well as weekly testing...

2: What are peoples thoughts on the phasing out of these sirens?

Are they simply an annoyance to the community or is it a good way of letting people know somethings happening....

Peoples thoughts?

[Good times]

We have reduced it to just big rural jobs, nothing else, and its very very effective, the community knows that when that siren goes something is wrong

[rescue5271]

We have not used our siren in a year with the new pagers we only tend to use it if we cant get a crew. I would not like to see them removed as what happens if the pagers fail?? and there are still problems with the radio and pager system. The siren also is a reminder to the community that we are still there and that we do still go to call outs. Since the introduction of new pagers and GRN we tend to no longer use the siren and the community only knows if we have been to a call out if its on tv or in the paper.

[CFS_Firey]

We don't use our siren either... (Although maybe thats because its broken )
I think sirens should still be used, so that the community knows that there is an incident happening, Even if it is just sounded when the first sitrep has come in, saying that its a going fire.
Like rescue5271 said,  I know a lot of residents who are relying on the sirens to tell them there is a fire...
 
Good Times – when you say use it for “big rural jobs”, Does that mean you sound the siren once you realize that its big? or for any rural response?

[JamesGar]

Sirens...mmmm big problem in my household! We live about 150m from the station and the siren, and it goes off almost daily, it's been hell with a baby under 1yrs trying to sleep during the day. Blackwood, Eden Hills and Belair sirens are all connected from when all three brigades we're automatically responded during daylight hours to any incident in any brigades area to address daytime crewing issues. The response griteria has changed, but not the siren. Belairs siren still goes off if Eden respond to a Animal Rescue or private alarm or whatever...Very annoying. Tried to get it changed to no outcome.

The siren system in Sturt group was turn off last year, but the community complained reasonably quickly. I was informed by a number of local residents that they find it reassuring to know that if something is happening, that the fire service is responding.

Personally I would like to see the siren used as a back up for communications (ie pager failure) and for a public notification for times of concern (going fire in local area). To enable this I feel manual activation at stations should remain for use under consultation with a Brigade Officer.

[Good times]

CFS Firey , we use it when we realise the rural job is going to impact on property etc, pagers are not an issue here.

[strikeathird]

When the new pagers were phased in, and shortly the Station Siren was reduced in its usage, i remember a friend of the family (who also lives close to the station)  commenting with the following:

Friend: 'You guys haven't had many calls lately'
Me:  ' We have a new pager system, and this means the siren isn't required unless the job is of larger magnitude, or coming towards "home"'
Friend:  'Oh good, casue I normally always ring when I hear the siren going, see if there is any help required, or if it's a big one and close to home"
Me:  'Yea, we get alot of people phone up when the siren is activated, knowing there must be something big, or close to the community....


So... In hindsight i think the removal of the Station Sirens would be a poor decision.

[Mike]

For people that have lived in an area for a long time, there can be some comfort in knowing that the service is still there and are still active.

But what about new people that move into the area?
How do you get the information out there about what it means?
As james mentioned, the changing circumstances of those living around us.

We have mentioned it in the local paper a few times, although i sometimes wonder how effective it really is.

Personally I like them, and if the community remains well educated about what it all means, its a fantastic way of passing simple set public info messages.

more food for thought......

[CFS_Firey]

I suspect that the decrease in siren use may be distancing the community from the CFS... Recently it has stuck me how little people know/care about the CFS... So many people don't fully understand what we do, and the number of times I am asked how much I get paid is unbelievable... I think Mike's right... People are moving into the area and with no sirens to remind them that we exist, they take us forgranted...

[FF_Rayner]

I think that the sirens are a goodtool to alert people in the area that something is wrong and to start using the ACTION PLAN!!

Not everyone is going to have a pager, so they dont know if something is wrong or not. It is only when they hear a siren out the front of their house that they may relize and then i might be to late to do anything.

[CFS_Firey]

It is only when they hear a siren out the front of their house that they may relize and then i might be to late to do anything.

Yeah, apparently in the Canberra fires a couple of years back, a resident knocked on his neighbours door to check that they were prepared for the approaching fire, and found them watching the TV. The nieghbour said to him, "Hey, have you seen the fires on the TV, they are unbeliavable".... the fire was only a block away at the time....

[CyberCitizen]

We are attempting to start using ours again.  We are to sound it between the hours of 9-5 only, I am usally at work, however on the weekends I can.

I think its a good idea as sometimes pagers may be out of range, yet members may still hear the siren, plus the siren also sends a page through so if you miss the first job page you may get the siren page.

[Mike]

You will only recieve a second page if the siren is manually activated. The number of places where a siren can be heard but no paging are now few and far between (infact not really worth a hige amount of worry by my account)...... However you will find that a siren will always go off before the pagers, handy for a bit of a 'heads up' as such.

[Good times]

It will only go off first if you manually activate it, not if its done from SHQ, but if you get SHQ to set it off make sure you get them to use the prefix URGMSG rather than CFSRES, the URGMSG code is what the decoder uses to set the siren off.

[CyberCitizen]

Our siren is not set to go off with the pagers.  We manually activate it on jobs, 9-5 only.

[strikeathird]

Some brigades will do things differently.......In hindsight.........I think this is one 'tradition', or furthermore, notification device to the community - that something is happening..

If nothing else, some find it keeps people out of the way of the front od the station, and warns an appliance is exiting the doors.....

[backburn]

I'm a bit slow to reply but we used to use ours but it started to make the Grey box on the wall smoke and spark. Still waiting for someone to come and fix it as they say there is not enough work for them just to come to our Group for one small problem.

[Robert-Robert34]

Even though the Kalangadoo community doesn't show much interest in the Kalangadoo CFS but whenever there is a shortage of crew on a really bad fire danger after the pagers have sounded requiring Kalangadoo 34's response we hit the siren then let to sound continuously until extra crew turn up and plus this catches the attention of town residents 

We had to sound the siren mid last year around 8:00-9:00 am because we didnt have driver after several attempts to contact our brigade auxiliary truck drivers failed,we activated the siren and surely enough a truck driver who was the son of one of our brigade auxiliary members answered the siren call and manned the driving seat enabling Kalangadoo 34 to respond. Also i must note that we were called to a truck roll over on this morning none of our drivers failed to turn up after we were paged

Basically what i'm saying is that station sirens are very handy as there will be times when a brigade has a crew but no driver and will need to activate their station siren in a bid to get one regardless if they are a Civilian or Industrial truck drivers it doesnt really matter as long as they have a MR or HR truck licence

[strikeathird]

regardless if they are a Civilian or Industrial truck drivers it doesnt really matter as long as they have a MR or HR truck licence

Ummmm....I think it does matter... But I guess that must be a "country" thing....

[rescue5271]

I think the problem is that members are choosing there calls and since we went over to GRN pagers we dont use our siren,  may be its time that the alerts system could activate the siren and open doors so members could get into the station. The community does not know how many calls we go to till some time later when its in the paper,summer is fast coming and I would hope that brigades will start to use there siren not only to get extra crew but to make the community know that we are on the job....

[Wagon 1]

We tend to give the siren a work out during summer, but we have been proactive in the community and now have them trained to know that when the siren goes there is a grass/scrub fire in the area that they should keep an eye on, and people are really happy with this idea.

[backburn]

Our town have asked us not to use the siren after 2300hrs until 0700hrs unless there is something they need to know about or get ready to evacuate as a treated timber place has been put in just opposite the high school and just down from the middle of the town. But first we must get them in to get it fixed as it makes the gray box on the wall smoke up a bit. Shame we can not use local electricians on it.

[strikeathird]

Just get it done mate.... Can;t exactly sack you over it.. 

[Sam]

Hi,

We very rarely use our sirens for callouts now, only for fixed alarms but they are all changing to this new fancy system now so not for long!

We also use it for training nights with the three wails, plus on total fire ban mornings. Our siren will not go off between 8:00 and 20:00 hours. Our community barely knows that we exist.......... i think.

[medevac]

just for info:
there is a document regarding use of fire sirens... times/types/etc...

cant find it atm though..