Middlefield CT upgrades siren system

[3t22]

I have been out of commission for the past few years do to having a very crappy car. Now I have a much more reliable car, I am once again able to go visit some "friends" I haven't been able to in the Middletown CT area. So today I drove through Middlefield mainly for grins, and got a bit of a shock.

Normally when I get up to the intersection of Main St and Cherry Hill Rd I'm greeted by this:



to my surprise I was greeted by this:



Very surprised knowing how money tight most towns up here are I did some digging when I got home and found this article:

http://durham.patch.com/articles/middle ... ncy-sirens

and this showing locations except for the 2008 and a 2016 further down on Cherry Hill Rd:

http://durham.patch.com/articles/town-t ... lar-sirens

Seems like much to my surprise, the 2 WS 2016s, the 2012 on top of the old Lyman gunsight factory, and the 2008 were out of service for a few years. I know the 2008 and the 2016 at the firehouse had issues. There's another 2903 at the firehouse, and at least one of the 2016s is still up but most likely not active.

I'l take another road trip with a better camera and see what's still up, and if anymore 2903s are installed. These sirens are primarily fire sirens, so the solar upgrade is a bit of a shock, and also seems like they've been up sense 2011. As for the 2008 and the firehouse 2016, my guess they were junked. Once it gets warmer I'll get a video of a test, if they still do a daily 6pm blast (I'll ask my family in town).

Now if only Vernon would follow suit.

[MysteryMachine]

So they all go off if the fire company gets a call? How big is that town to need that many fire sirens? When I went to Greensburg, Pa they had 3 within a few blocks of each other. I parked and walked to all of them. They had a 3t22, a 5, and a 3. The 3t22 drowned out the other 2 from where I was because everyone says all 3 goes off. Seems a little overkill for a fire company

[3t22]

So they all go off if the fire company gets a call? How big is that town to need that many fire sirens? When I went to Greensburg, Pa they had 3 within a few blocks of each other. I parked and walked to all of them. They had a 3t22, a 5, and a 3. The 3t22 drowned out the other 2 from where I was because everyone says all 3 goes off. Seems a little overkill for a fire company

Middlefield's not all that big (13.3 square miles, population 4203), and is mostly farmland and orchards (Lyman's). Their old fire siren system, which was 3 Model 5s covered the town well and you could easily hear all 3 from any part of town. The WS 2016s were installed in the early 80's for the CT Yankee atomic power plant. 2 were installed by Northeast Utilities in town. in 1994 they added the WS 2008 to fill in a dead spot and the FD decided to also use it as a fire siren replacing one of the Model 5s. When CT Yankee closed in 1998 they moved one of the 2016s, kept one in place but left it out of service, kept the 2008 in service, and grabbed a 2012 and an additional 2016 to replace the last surviving model 5 at the firehouse. You could hear the 2012 easily from the firehouse.



Over the years of course the 2008 and especially the 2016 had problems with drivers and their controls going bad, so they shut them off. Now of course they have the 3 2903s which will cover the town well again. I'll have to dig around to see if the 2016 still in place is still active or abandoned in place.

[TBOLT1000]

I have been out of commission for the past few years do to having a very crappy car. Now I have a much more reliable car, I am once again able to go visit some "friends" I haven't been able to in the Middletown CT area. So today I drove through Middlefield mainly for grins, and got a bit of a shock.

Normally when I get up to the intersection of Main St and Cherry Hill Rd I'm greeted by this:



to my surprise I was greeted by this:



Very surprised knowing how money tight most towns up here are I did some digging when I got home and found this article:

http://durham.patch.com/articles/middle ... ncy-sirens

and this showing locations except for the 2008 and a 2016 further down on Cherry Hill Rd:

http://durham.patch.com/articles/town-t ... lar-sirens

Seems like much to my surprise, the 2 WS 2016s, the 2012 on top of the old Lyman gunsight factory, and the 2008 were out of service for a few years. I know the 2008 and the 2016 at the firehouse had issues. There's another 2903 at the firehouse, and at least one of the 2016s is still up but most likely not active.

I'l take another road trip with a better camera and see what's still up, and if anymore 2903s are installed. These sirens are primarily fire sirens, so the solar upgrade is a bit of a shock, and also seems like they've been up sense 2011. As for the 2008 and the firehouse 2016, my guess they were junked. Once it gets warmer I'll get a video of a test, if they still do a daily 6pm blast (I'll ask my family in town).

Now if only Vernon would follow suit.

I thought you knew they were changing them? I ran across the article early last year on them doing this and glad to see they have most of if not all of the new Whelens up. At least one town in CT (besides Glastonbury) still likes using sirens. i just wonder if they go off at 6.

[3t22]

i just wonder if they go off at 6.

I drove back out there last night to see if they did. I parked at the library which is across from the FD. The good news is they still do. But they no longer do a siren tone ("noon test" mode), instead they do Chimes (the old weird ASC Alertronic Chimes). I've got a video I'm in the process of editing, so that'll be up in the next day or so.