Does your Dept. Still have a Siren???

This article ran in the local paper today- was wondering how many Volly FD's still have theses types of sirens. I can see both sides of the argument on this one. I am sure if these people's house was on fire they would want that siren blowing and people coming..
Check out my message board and let me know what you think..
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Fire siren irks Tobyhanna Township man
Eric Mark
Pocono Record Writer
June 19, 2006


POCONO PINES — A local family complains that unbearable noise from the Tobyhanna Township fire siren, about 100 feet from their home, is ruining their quality of life.

The siren — recently repaired after being out of commission for several months — sounds several times per day, sometimes in the middle of the night, they say.

The township fire chief, in response to the family's concerns, has put a timer on the siren so it only goes off during the day.

The township supervisor chairman says he will arrange a meeting with the fire chief and the folks who complained about the siren, to see what else can be done. That meeting had not yet taken place, as of Friday.

The siren is next to Clymer Library, which occupies the building that used to house the township fire company, off Firehouse Road and Old Route 940, in a residential neighborhood in the village of Pocono Pines.

Tom Augustine, who lives with his family in a home off Firehouse Road, next to the fire siren, told township supervisors last week the siren is so loud his family cannot hold a conversation, talk on the phone or watch television, even with the windows shut tight, when the siren goes off.

He said the noise is so bad it causes health problems such as ear infections for him and his family and that the family's former pet dog went deaf because of the siren.

Augustine contended the siren is unnecessary, since all Tobyhanna firefighters now have pagers, beepers or scanners to alert them to fire calls. He said the siren sounds more often than it did in years past, since fire calls have increased along with the township's population, adding that he has spoken with members of the fire company who agree the siren is not needed.




The fire siren in Pocono Pines is atop a pole and set between the public library and a cemetery. (Pocono Record/David Kidwell)

Supervisor Chairman John Kerrick told Augustine he would talk to Troy Counterman, the township's fire chief, and try to find a solution.

On Tuesday, Counterman placed timers on both of the fire company's sirens — one in Blakeslee as well as the one in Pocono Pines near the Augustine home — that prevent the sirens from sounding before 8 a.m. and after 8:30 p.m.

"We did that to accommodate the Augustines," Counterman said. "I'm not sure what else we can do."

The fire sirens play an important role in alerting firefighters to emergencies, since pagers have been known to malfunction, Counterman said. He gave as an example a time he was working in his yard and did not hear his pager go off but did hear the siren.

Counterman disagreed with Augustine's claim that the siren is louder since it was re-installed recently.

"It's the same siren as before," he said.

Workers at Clymer Library shrug off the siren noise.

"It's really not an issue for us," a library employee said Friday.

A similar dispute arose in Stroudsburg in 2002, when residents of the borough's Hill District complained of blaring noise from the Brown Street fire siren.