Guest guest Posted March 4, 2001 Report Share Posted March 4, 2001 The phone system that we have, instead of a ringing sound on 911 calls, sounds like a siren. It is not a siren that goes out on any PA system...I thought we were all talking about the same " siren " . When we key our radios, our units can hear the sound, just in the background and they kind of know someone is on their way out of the station....we also have the option of replacing this " siren " sound with a " waterdrop " sound or the Cops theme " Bad Boys " . Kind of cool.... Stacey K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 5, 2001 Report Share Posted March 5, 2001 In the small town that I live in now Concord Va. they used to have a loud siren but quit using that about 10 years ago. Then a couple of weeks ago for some reason the siren went off. Didn't know what was going on. Wanted to call 9-1-1 to ask but decided it wouldn't be a good idea. Never did find out. It is an all volunteer rescue/fire dept. Tammy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 5, 2001 Report Share Posted March 5, 2001 > In the small town where I grew up, the telephone ringer was connected > to the siren. Just call the volunteer fire department and you could hear > the siren wind up during each ring and wind down between rings. In Carlinville, IL where I grew up, for years the Whistle would blow, the pagers would be set off AND the " fire phones " would ring at the homes of all the firemen ( a long constant ring until the phone picked up). I believe the whistle ended about 7-10 years ago. Pagers and fire phone still remain. Now, I live in Glen Carbon IL and they still use the siren and 2 pages. I still can't figure out why they use the siren, when I'm sure all the firemen have pagers now... Terry Weatherford, Jr. N9MAE www.N9MAE.com " SouthWest IL Scanner Site " ScannerIL Scanner@... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 5, 2001 Report Share Posted March 5, 2001 > In the small town where I grew up, the telephone ringer was connected > to the siren. Just call the volunteer fire department and you could hear > the siren wind up during each ring and wind down between rings. In Carlinville, IL where I grew up, for years the Whistle would blow, the pagers would be set off AND the " fire phones " would ring at the homes of all the firemen ( a long constant ring until the phone picked up). I believe the whistle ended about 7-10 years ago. Pagers and fire phone still remain. Now, I live in Glen Carbon IL and they still use the siren and 2 pages. I still can't figure out why they use the siren, when I'm sure all the firemen have pagers now... Terry Weatherford, Jr. N9MAE www.N9MAE.com " SouthWest IL Scanner Site " ScannerIL Scanner@... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 5, 2001 Report Share Posted March 5, 2001 >Just call the volunteer fire department and you could hear the siren wind up during each ring and wind down between rings. WOW! That was a LONG time ago...< When anyone dialed the fire department number in our small town, the phone rang in every volunteer fire department members home... It also rang in the PD at the dispatch desk... You could hear everyone on the party line picking up the phone... " fire department " .. " fire department " " fire department " .... They'd make arrangements on what truck to take... who was driving... who couldn't go, and for what reason..... It was always hilarious... At the PD we had a big red button on the wall... We got to ring the fire siren..... so all the fireman at work would know to call the PD and find out where the fire was. Ah... for the good old days.... Well, I'm headed to work... computers.. pagers... cell 9-1-1... I miss the party line & siren. Weintraut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 5, 2001 Report Share Posted March 5, 2001 >Just call the volunteer fire department and you could hear the siren wind up during each ring and wind down between rings. WOW! That was a LONG time ago...< When anyone dialed the fire department number in our small town, the phone rang in every volunteer fire department members home... It also rang in the PD at the dispatch desk... You could hear everyone on the party line picking up the phone... " fire department " .. " fire department " " fire department " .... They'd make arrangements on what truck to take... who was driving... who couldn't go, and for what reason..... It was always hilarious... At the PD we had a big red button on the wall... We got to ring the fire siren..... so all the fireman at work would know to call the PD and find out where the fire was. Ah... for the good old days.... Well, I'm headed to work... computers.. pagers... cell 9-1-1... I miss the party line & siren. Weintraut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 5, 2001 Report Share Posted March 5, 2001 Olden Days???? Our city is 1.7 square miles, and we still actively use all 7 of our fire sirens. That's right ... 7 !! Our calls get dispatched by county (me, I am also the Battalion Chief of the FD), when they hit the tones, the sirens activate. If the fire is small in nature, the sirens only blow once. But if the call is a " general " , ('structure & above' risk levels) then all 7 sirens go through 7 'up-down' evolution's. This takes about 3.5 minutes to complete. Oddly, we very rarely get complaints from the residents. Some have even commented that they use it as a signal to get their children in sight, because they know that the volunteers are going to be responding to the stations, and the fire apparatus will be responding to the scene of 'whatever'. J. Fred Salem NJ Mark Panitz wrote: > just inputing my 2 cents here- > I have a hunch this siren is sort of left over from before they had 911 > and pagers/cell phones and in a area serviced by volunteers (fire and /or > emts > (ie in the olden days, if there was an emergecny -someone contact > the operator and ask them to send fire dept -the operator then hit the > siren > alerting the volunteers to respond to the fire station > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 5, 2001 Report Share Posted March 5, 2001 Terry said: I still can't figure out why they use the siren, when I'm sure all the firemen have pagers now... Most of the time, the siren is still used by volunteers to let the public know of how many calls they have and at what time they occurred. The pagers have replaced a number of the older methods, but it's sort of a tradition, and firemen are deep in tradition. It's sort of like the bell on the front of the fire truck. Larew NC911@... Photos by NC911 http://members1.clubphoto.com/john63268 <http://members1.clubphoto.com/john63268> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.