Mahopac Fire Department removes unpopular siren

[x635 4,066]

Mahopac Fire Department removes unpopular siren

By Michael Risinit • mrisinit@lohud.com • December 3, 2009

MAHOPAC — Life in the neighborhood behind the Mahopac firehouse should be quieter now that fire officials have taken down a siren residents said noisily intruded into their bedrooms, kitchens and living rooms.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20091203/NEWS04/912030360/1205/NEWS0408/Mahopac-Fire-Department-removes-unpopular-siren

[pfdfirefighter01 1]

i really have to agree with the residents on this one. Some siren are just to loud, or in some cases (i wont say what dept) very very long. I know there are sometimes glitches with technology and some people dont get the dispatch but some of these fire departments really need to update how long these fire whistles go off. I personnal think 10 cycles every 3 mins is very long and disturbing expecially at 3am. This of course is just my opinion. Im not saying get rid of them but do shorten how long they go off.

[JM15 386]

Isn't a second means of alerting members required by ISO or am I confused?

[ny10570 745]

If you need a second form of alerting members, invest in an autodialer. For a few hundred you can buy your own or sign up for an online service.

[eagle5473 7]

Have your dispatch center send out a text message it works great

[Remember585 815]

We only activate our sirens during the hours of 0700-1900. Our 24 hour secondary notification is the I-page sent from 60 Control. Our sirens, located on each of the three firehouses, does three rounds, roughly a minute of noise. If, in the event our tower is down and we are dispatched on a backup, our siren will be activated around the clock to better ensure members are notified.

[VAEMC 10]

Have your dispatch center send out a text message it works great

I agree great means of notification, but whos paying for the txt paging cost? Not all members have txt page because of that and not all members own cell phones.

[Remember585 815]

I agree great means of notification, but whos paying for the txt paging cost? Not all members have txt page because of that and not all members own cell phones.

Good point Captain! Our I-page list currently goes out to 71 of our members, which is great. The only phones we pay for are the three Chiefs and our administrative assistant. The cost of I-page has been mentioned before and unfortunately, there isn't anything we can do about it.

[gamewell45 258]

http://www.lohud.com...unpopular-siren

Might also be a good idea to remove the sirens and air horns off the apparatus so we don't disturb anyone's sleep.

[IzzyEng4 427]

We had a similar complaint about the siren on top of one of our houses and the residents lead by a moron who said the siren caused his dog to go deaf. Well we were being forced to turn it off and the consideration of removing the Gamewell system in our town came about.

Well a short time after that, there was this great big blackout in the Northeast. Needless to say no phones worked, our radio tower went down because of a generator malfunction. During this we had a fire next to this person house. So what does the neighbor do (who was in favor of keeping the alarm system active) he goes and hooks the box and we showed up and save the house. The "idiot removed your siren" didn't realized that if you pulled the lever in the red box, we would come!!! Of course after schooling him on the system how it works, he changed his mind and pulled the complaint.

Isn't it amazing that 100+ years of good technology still beats a cell-phone??? Also thanks to homeland security initiating communities to have warning sirens again, it helped saved out active system.

[DOC22 1]

Might also be a good idea to remove the sirens and air horns off the apparatus so we don't disturb anyone's sleep.

Yeah, and it has to be hard on those poor deer that just want to jump out in front of you as you drive. HAHAHAHA!!!!

[efdcapt115 1,511]

It was a sad day when they took the fire alarm box system off-line for good in Eastchester. Times were changing no doubt. Since the begining, we had our own FD dispatcher. We had the box system throughout the district, complete with tape reels in all 5 stations, bells in all stations, and the whistle system. An emphasis was made on all career firefighters knowing both the dispatcher's job, as well as interpreting the boxes with the run-code and then responding; a system that was in place for many decades.

When we went to 60-Control for dispatch, they took the firefighter out of our dispatch and created another position for an engine company. The dispatch office became the Captain's office. And so it goes. Some would call it progress, others would say we should have kept the dispatcher position. The arguement had merit on both sides. But what was done was done.

While I missed having the boxes and all things firematically nostalgic connected to it, I cannot say I missed the whistle system. These things were useful back when the district was a fairly rural place, and the job relied on volunteers. Even though it is a mere 2-3 miles to the NYC line; it really was "the country" for a very long time; but it grew and was built up. So much so that one village in the district became the most tightly populated village in NY; going by population vs. square milage. That would be Tuckahoe.

But the whistles were hideously loud and quite disruptive. The population in general mostly hated them, the guys on the job hated them, but having no choice we all put up with it. The residents that lived close to the firehouses were at times livid; especially when you consider that places of public assembly like the schools had boxes like 8-3, or 8-8-1. A pull-box would generate four rounds of 8-8-1! That's 68 whistle blasts times 5 whistles=340 blasts thundering through the district for a pull-box!

The department did itself a great public relations job by eliminating the whistles. The plectrons had been in simultaneous use for many years, and that system would prove effective as the sole notification of alarms.

The only thing many people missed about the whistles was the six o'clock test. Two rounds to set your watch by. Again this was before everything we owned became connected to the universal clock. (On a side note, did you ever notice years ago how many times the clock was wrong at the old Yankee Stadium? Used to drive me crazy! Now one can marvel at every clock everywhere all humming at the exact same time.)

Now you can bunk in the firehouse and be awakened by the kinder, gentler tone-out. This should add years to the members lives; as the whistles would sometimes give you heart palpitations. It depended on what part of the sleep cycle you were in when they went off........zzzzzz.....BONK!!....YIKES!!....BONK!! Gave you such an adrenaline rush you'd be exhausted before you cranked up the rig and rolled out the door.

~Good riddance to those blasted whistles!

[NHFD21255 141]

Just another peice of Fire Tradition being taken away from us. When we took our siren down a couple years ago to build the new fire house we actually had people asking if there's no 6 pm whistle how is my child supposed to know what time to come home for dinner ? Now that it's back up we've only had 1 person complain. He lives across the street from the fire house and knew there was a fire house with a whistle there before he moved in.

[Guest alsfirefighter]

I give kudos for Mahopac for making a decision that seemed to be the best for them. I for one also don't see the need for them anymore either....but am a proponent of maintaining them for the times they are needed as a back up. As far as some of your comments...very professional. As far as it being a tradition...who cares. Best parts about tradition is everyday you can start a new one. Bad part about them is they remind you often of where you are and stopping you from where you should be. Also...who uses air horns and sirens at 3 am when there is little to no traffic on the road in front of you or around you? Why should everyone else have to obey noise ordinances only to have a device that instead of say a party with loud music affecting 2 or 4 or so neighbors...one that affects blocks if not an entire town. I'm in the fire service and if I lived by my vollie firehouse I would lobby to have not used but for backup purposes...even if I moved in yesterday. Some of you cry about freedom on here and then bash those whom wish to express one of the biggest of what our founding fathers termed a god given right..."the pursuit of hapiness." Sometimes we need to get over ourselves. No one owes us anything...few care about what we do...and certainly no one held a gun to any of heads to get in the fire service...which by the way survived before us..and will go on quite well after us...no alert sirens and all. There was always and still is the Elk's club and from what I've read..they are hurting for members as well.