Fire signal

[Daniel]

It seems that every fire department using outdoor warning sirens has a different fire call. One Oregon town I lived in, Mt. Angel, would sound three 12-second blasts on their 2T22, while the city of Ashland sounded a one-minute steady signal on their Model 5. Silverton (Sterling M5) and Scotts Mills (Darley Model 5) both sound three 4-second blasts. While visiting Blue Earth, Minnesota, their electronic sirens sounded attack for about five minutes. I don't remember what kind they were, except they consisted of sixteen rectangular speakers, four each pointing a different direction, and sounded exactly like a police car siren. Being a naive Westerner, I thought that a tornado was just over the hill and was preparing to get out of there until a local told me that was just their fire call. To avoid this kind of confusion, should there be some sort of state or national standardization for fire calls as there once was for civil defense? What are the most common fire signals used?

[SirenMadness]

That reason is why they have pagers today, sadly. I don't think many places have any standardization for fire signals and civil-defense signals these days. But one of the obvious factors of knowing which use the signal is for is by the codes - civil-defense signals last to about a minute or more, where the fire signals are shorter and are coded upon different intervals.
Also, far back in Germany, all I heard were the fire signals, three long wails; and never heard a civil-defense signal for test. Do you think that the German government dumped the idea completely?

[scooterbugs25]

The Richlands VFD uses both pagers and a siren.. For out of town call it sounds 2 20 sec. blasts.. for a in town call it sounds for about 20 sec.

For weather warnings it is on steady for 3 Min's and repeated every 5 Min's until the warning expires.

I personaly think the use of it for a fire call is a bit much. there are so many complaints about it going off, nobody pays attention to it when there is a major weather event.

[firefighter 5]

DVFC in PA. we uses both pagers and a siren a fed model 5 or 7 i beleve. are siren gos off by a pager every time we get a call i beleve its the 8 on 4 off for about 2 or 3 mins its a old timer but not a af or ar timer. im trying somehow to set it up so it gos off one way for a fire call and a diff way for weather major events. also want to put something to stop fire calls from seting the siren off betean 11pm-5am. be nice and let ppl sleep we uses this cuz this is what we have. i know my old firehouse (intown) i went to thay have a horn that gos off for a fire call and one bust at 11pm. and one more town company thay have bouth a horn for fire calls and a siren i beleve for weather and major events

[3t22]

Around here it depends on the town. The ones that still use sirens for FD use either do 2-3 minutes of attack if no one's complained or they told them to deal with it, or if there were complaints, and they have to compromise, they usually shorten the signal to 3 cycles of attack, and/or limit the time they're allowed to sound it.

Now in Glastonbury for example, they do 3 cycles of wail on their 2 2902s, and 2 2740s from 7am-8pm for all FD calls, plus use alert and attack for other non FD emergencies. That's got to be confusing, especially sense not many towns around here use their sirens for anything else but fire calls.

[Fireman61341]

Our F.D. uses pagers and our Model 7 sounds 5 cycles of attack for fires (6am-11pm) and alert for tornadoes.
That's the only two signals it can do with it's ancient controller: http://www.airraidsirens.com/forums/vie ... ght=#52652

[Rheems1]

I bet I can guess which department you run with Firefighter 5 AND which department you used to run with (even though we don't know each other). The in town set up gave it away LOL....

[The3t22sOfUSA]

Our department's sirens both do 3 cycles of attack, a Sentry 5V and a Model 5. The model 5 also does a growl at the end of the cycle. The sirens are activated by our pager tones. I want to put up a siren at our third station, but the people would probably complain too much.

[Rheems1]

I know that Mars and Valencia went into Adams Area Fire Department but I can't think of a 3rd station that would be included. I have heard that Callery has put up a Modulator though, I plan to make the drive out there to have a look at it!

[Striker404]

Our department's siren is a 3T22, during a monthly test it does a noon blast and a 3 minute alert signal, i wonder if it can do Hi-Lo signal.