just a question for the forum:
I have been a member with a Urban CFS brigade area where we never had a siren at the Fire Station - just pagers for alerts. I now reside within a rural area where the siren is well respected and it brings the community alive when sounding (especially during the summer)
We have pagers as well - but its amazing when on a rare occasion we miss our weekly siren testing and the community asks why?
My question to the forum is: since the introduction of pagers a few years back could we be loosing this community alert/notification - as I have seen allot of the newer stations loose there sirens or not use them as they have pagers?
I am after peoples views & ideas.
Many thanks
Wayne
I Like The Siren, We Use It When We Can Eg During The Day.
our siren goes off evry call we get...
but personally id otn see a need for it in our urban area. if everyone wheres there pager there is no issue. and quite honestly the public dont need to get all worked up everytime they hear it go off for a private alarm or MVA...
Quote from: firefighter_sa on July 11, 2006, 03:26:26 AM
I am after peoples views & ideas.
we only activate the siren for a fire in our area (and weekly testing). It is really for notifying the community (since having pagers), but as you mention, people take notice of it (semi-rural area in the hills).
We use our siren a lot during the day, as we have members working on tractor they do not hear the pagers but hear the siren. The locals like it but complaints come from the Motel down the street.
I Think That Its Good, It Alerts The Public They We Will Be Having Members Responding To The Station & Also Will Be Responding A Truck To An Iccident. More For Public Awareness. Does Also Come In Handy For Those That Don't Hear There Pagers.
Our siren is quite broken at the moment. Always a good thing. We've had some complaints around the place, but I believe we hope to have the siren fixed in time for the fire season only to use for large fires in our own area. *NOT* for every MVA/Alarm/etc
We use our siren during the day but not at night (common sense prevails), unless it is a fixed alarm , in which case we have no choice.
There is a policy on the use of sirens, including consultation with the community.
we only test our siren on a training night,but since pagers(GRN)came on line the siren does not get used much we have been talking about using it more so as to get members from other brigades that may be in town or if our members have forgotten to take the pager with them....there are new guidelines for the use of the siren there was an article in the last Volunteer...
hi there all
Many thanks for all the comments - Sirens wins
I am a siren person as well - and I guilty - I some times forget to carry the pager.
Wayne
Sirens don't help those of us who live too far away to hear it...
That is true,I know of a number of brigades who have remote sirens that are placed over the township,I was talking to a guy who says you could do pager via SMS to your phone just in case you leave the pager at home.....
Blinky - SMS.
I have done a little homework into this (as we considered it), the problem you have is there is no guarantee you will get it on time.
If you use SMS you will notice some times there is huge delays usually because of overloading (to many people sending messages - usually peak times)
I do like the idea, as long as we could guarantee 100% timely displays - I always carry a phone but not a pager.
Toast
I am also in this position some times - we reside approx 1.5km from town and if we have any variance (wind & rain (only some times) we also don't always hear the siren.
Wayne
Yes it's funny how much weather conditions affect sirens, i live 1km from our station and on mornings with a slight breeze i can't hear the siren but if the breeze goes the other way you can hear the siren up to 7km away at currency creek.... I've also heard of brigades having 2 sirens one at each end of the town, however i don't know if there are any out there still running two.
Quote from: firefighter_sa on July 12, 2006, 07:55:26 AM
Blinky - SMS.
I have done a little homework into this (as we considered it), the problem you have is there is no guarantee you will get it on time.
If you use SMS you will notice some times there is huge delays usually because of overloading (to many people sending messages - usually peak times)
I do like the idea, as long as we could guarantee 100% timely displays - I always carry a phone but not a pager.
Toast
I am also in this position some times - we reside approx 1.5km from town and if we have any variance (wind & rain (only some times) we also don't always hear the siren.
Wayne
I have a friend in QLD who is apart of the Queensland RFS and her brigade relies on sms to alert their brigade members for a call out as its alot more reliable than pagers due to all of the members carrying mobile phones around
I live 4km from our station, what with hills and heavy bushland in between... I can hear three other sirens from here, yet not ours.
Hi there Robert34
I do agree if we could guarantee mobile phone sms's being 100% instantaneous - it would have saved the organization millions as majority of people carry them.
Wayne.
SMS can never be relied on during an emergency.Sometimes it takes far too long from when a message is sent to when it is received. Our pagers may not be perfect are pretty reliable in most area of the state.
robert - phones are a good form of sending/recieving messages, however they do not garauntee the message will be recieved in a timely fashion (as others have pointed out)
however the GRN network has been designed to transmit and recieve these messages almost instantaneously...
i mean come on people... wearing a pager isnt hard, and there a damn sight smaller than they used to be ;)
Nothing bets the GRN pager:
2nd Nature to put the pager on in the morning....Dont know what is so hard about it?
I work in a workplace where there is alot of lifting and stuff and it doesnt get knocked around so you cant really use that excuse.
Camo
Quote from: Camo on July 13, 2006, 02:21:09 PM
2nd Nature to put the pager on in the morning....Dont know what is so hard about it?
I work in a workplace where there is alot of lifting and stuff and it doesnt get knocked around so you cant really use that excuse.
Camo
I agree Camo. I have members who work as welders, farmers etc and say "What if i break it?" I say "easy - i give you a spare and send yours away to be repaired. Don't worry about it!"
Back to sirens - we don't use ours at all, but I've spoken to quite a few residents who rely on hearing the sirens if there's a fire. (That is, they expect that if there's a fire, they will hear the fire sirens...)
even though people whinge about the sirens going off, I feel it is an important part of community fire awareness here in the hills, especially during fire season. I feel people will react more effectively to hearing a siren and seeing smoke on a 40 degree day. By all means respond with pagers, but i think maybe sirens should be used for responses to fires and maybe dangerous HAZMATS. Sirens for fires though should probably only be set off DURING FIRE SEASON or on a day where the incident could change rapidly.
Could the sirens become part of an emergency notification system to the local community, not just for fires ?
The previous post mentioned HAZMAT, but I would include flood, etc.
For this to work though, the community needs to know what they should do if they hear the emergency siren.
Do they switch on the battery operated radio (they always have one right :wink:) to listen for further information. Where would they tune the radio to ? Could the local broadcast frequency (cannot remember the frequency, but it is used for local information only) be used ?
For example, if you look half-way down this website page, the local council provides information via radio in as part of a 'flood warning systm' http://www.wangaratta.vic.gov.au/CA256B5800826065/page/About%20Council-Parking/Local%20Laws-Local%20Laws?OpenDocument&1=100-About%20Council~&2=770-Parking/Local%20Laws~&3=075-Local%20Laws~
Would this be useful in a wild-fire, HAZMAT with moving toxic cloud, flood, severe storm, etc, etc being linked to the communities emergency siren ?
Or am I totally wrong here :?
Well BAJADS there is a emergency radio warning system down here in the south east which is broadcasted by the local radio stations during major fires
Quote from: Robert34 on July 17, 2006, 04:47:33 PM
Well BAJADS there is a emergency radio warning system down here in the south east which is broadcasted by the local radio stations during major fires
I believe that is state-wide on ABC 891, as well as some FM stations.
But could the brigade siren be used to notify residents to listen to that radio because an immediate or significant potential threat exists to them.
My brigade uses their siren to alert the town if we are short of crew although our fire siren hasnt been used since Ash Wednesday to alert people to potential threat of a wildfire
I live in an area that is classed as rural. We only sound our siren once a month for training and if there is an incident where ANY part of the township is at threat, or if we will need to go near the school during there pickup drop off times the teachers keep the kids in the school and the parents don't mind that either they know we will be coming through soon.
I used to live in area where the siren was used for every call and an all clear but i have not heard this used since I was a kid - personally i think it would excessive.
(I like the siren sets all the local dogs barking and howling - its funny.)
We get that too 81631 everytime our siren is set off on a Wednesday night for siren test the dogs go nuts and many people complain when ever we set our siren off during day time hours just to alert volunteers who missed the pager call or inform residents that we have shortage of crew
But setting the siren off because of crew shortage has saved our butts several times with volunteers rocking up shortly after the siren is set off... i get the feeling with the low amount of rain fall we've had in the last month or so combined with really cold nights killing of grass were in for a really bad 2006-2007 fire season
If this does happen our fire siren will likely be going off every few days because of fires starting left, right and centre and to inform town residents about the high risk of threat
We utilise our town siren mainly during fire season and daytime only if its a fire in our own brigade area as a warning to the public,and the odd ocassions when we need more crew that havent heard the pager.
Speaking of which for those that dont know you can no longer GET ANY PAGER holsters that we rely on so much to clip on our belts etc...direct from the GRN help desk and Link!!!!!
No wonder we have to leave them inside or put in a drawer for safekeeping while we work outside.
Dont get rid of your station siren just yet..remember Ash Wednesday!
Unless your lucky to have a secret stash of them somewhere!