Fire Station Town Alarms

searescue

Came across this video - do many stations have these town alarms still?

Do they go off at all hours? Haven't seen one in years:

seven_eleven

I dont know why but I found this hilarious. medieval castle fire station :pac:

kub

Its Macroom in Co Cork.

Tango Alpha 51

Crosshaven had one. Don't know if its still used or not

goldie fish

It depends on the area. Sometimes the siren is heard before the pager, depending on the occupation of the retained firefighter.

19hz

Carrigaline still use the air raid thing...heard it a couple of years ago anyway :P

MarkR

I hear that siren every sunday at 6 in shannon, from the airport.

searescue

MarkR wrote: »

I hear that siren every sunday at 6 in shannon, from the airport.

That's the airport crash siren - was lucky enough to be in the tower one Sunday when they were testing it! Boy it's loud!

flazio

There is one on top of Ballinasloe fire station. Not sure if it works, never heard it used or tested.

Doop

Definitely one still in use in Dundalk, hear it all the time

Mycroft H

Have to admit, that's awesome, I've never heard one in this country

belacqua_

Is it just me, or is there a minor 7th chord in there, round about 22 secs. It's rather beautiful, like a contemporary classical piece.

firetrooper

We have one on our station use it when the town is busy if anyone thinks to put it on plus it keeps it from ceassing up,station is very old built in early 50s origenally used to alert f/fs to callouts.

IvyTheTerrible

Here in France, they have them in a lot of country villages. They are very very loud!

james142

Whats the point in them? Surely the siren on the fire engine is enough?

Mycroft H

james142 wrote: »

Whats the point in them? Surely the siren on the fire engine is enough?

Acts as a warning that a fire appliance is exiting the station? Besides that, it sounds cool in a cold war-esque kinda way.

goldie fish

Originally they were a part of the paging system for retained firefighters.

Thoie

The town where I grew up had one - it was used in the days when mobile phones/pagers didn't exist, and not everyone had a telephone. The siren was used to call the volunteer fire fighters to base from wherever they were around the place. People would literally shut up shop to get to the fire station. I think someone mentioned once that they're still used in areas of bad coverage.

Another advantage, if you want to call it that, was that people would all look out, and start clearing narrow roads if they thought the fire brigade needed to come along that way.

ariadnelion

ya in Schull, west cork they use this siren... and at all hours of the night..

cc94

Yea my station has one and still uses it , just to let everyone know we have a call really

cc94

cc94 wrote: »

just to let everyone know we have a call really

Haha. I love the way you worded that. Just got a mental image of a fire station that never gets any calls, so when they do they have to tell everyone about it. All the locals getting the balloons and lemonade ready for when ye return :pac:

cc94

Haha that's exactly it ... Unfortunately