DELMAR – The Delmar Fire department is re—activating both of its fire sirens at its Adams Street and Feura Bush Road stations for the first time in nearly two decades. The original activation date was December 15, but has been delayed for about a week due to technical issues.
The sirens, which will start singing their siren song for fire related 911 calls as soon as this week, will help “alert their neighborhood that the station is active, trucks will be on the move and care must be taken”, according to a release.
Although Delmar Fire District Commissioner Thomas Barone was unsure what the new sirens would sound like, he said it will not be a “horn sound” and will sound only four times and then stop. At 7 p.m., the siren will play a “Westminster chime” and then shut down for the evening
From 1911 until about 15-20 years ago, the department’s volunteer fire department depended on sirens to call members to fires or other emergencies. Delmar’s sirens were replaced first by pagers and then cell phone alerts and ultimately discontinued because they broke and replacement parts could not be found. “That was okay for a lot of people because they [the old civil defense sirens] were extremely obnoxious,” said Barone.
To accommodate fire house neighbors, the sirens will operate only during day time hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. “We always try to be good neighbors,” said Barone. “We are clearly aware this has the potential of disrupting some people close to the [fire house] neighborhood so we limited the siren hours to the daytime.” He added that with the new sirens, the district will have “some control over the volume and we will be careful about that.”
Barone said the district has worked to notify neighbors of the coming change and has received no complaints to date. “We have a really good history with the neighbors and hope they will understand we are doing this for an important reason and not to annoy people,” he said.
Ironically, the sirens had been scheduled to be activated on December 15, but the activation had to be delayed because the system needed a new part. He said he hoped the new system would be activated by the time this article is published.
He said getting new sirens has been on the district’s “to do” list for at least ten years, but the cost is “not inexpensive “ and the district had other priorities that needed to be met first, such as upkeep to the station houses. The $28,000 cost for the new siren related equipment and installation is being paid for out of the Delmar Fire District’s general fund supported by taxpayers.
Barone acknowledged that there is a “school of thought” among fire departments across the state questioning whether a fire siren is needed anymore when electronic notification – cell phones or pagers — are available. However, he said, electronic equipment sometimes malfunctions. He noted that the fire department has recently experienced a couple of instances when the pagers did not go off during a fire call, so “the siren is a back up,” he said. Also, “if you’re working in your yard, you may not have your pager, which is heavy, with you, so this is another way to notify firefighters to get to the call.” Barone admitted that the sirens may create a “redundancy” in some cases, but the need to “make sure everyone is notified if we get a call” outweighs any duplication.
According to Barone, the sirens also serve a safety purpose to notify neighbors and children that fire trucks are coming so they should be careful and get off the streets. He said, “It’s also a good thing because it lets the community know that the fire departments are active and for them to know their taxes are being used to deal with emergencies.”
