Schuylkill Haven fire companies decide to turn off sirens
Aug. 08--SCHUYLKILL HAVEN -- Two fire companies in the borough have silenced their sirens.
Schuylkill Hose Company No. 2 and Liberty Fire Company shut off the fire house alarms in June, borough Assistant Fire Chief James Reed said Thursday.
"We are trying to find ways to help us save money," he said.
Reed said the borough allots a certain amount of electricity to the fire companies each year. If they exceed it, then the company has to pay. Reed said he did not know how much electricity will be saved by shutting off the alarms.
"We just asked if the companies wanted to try it and they did," he said.
All three fire companies originally shut off their alarms, but Rainbow Hose Fire Company No. 1 has since turned it back on.
"We really don't need the sirens anymore. We have more things to alert us to calls, like pagers and cellphones," Reed said.
When the sirens are going off, Reed said it is also difficult for people in the fire house to hear each other.
"It's actually kind of peaceful," he said. "You don't have to scream at each other to hear what is going on."
The sirens aren't completely obsolete, Reed said. The Schuylkill Hose siren may continue to be used for emergencies, like floods, tornadoes or other evacuation events, he said.
However, Reed is aware that some people are against the change, especially now that emergency communications are being encrypted and less can be heard over scanners. Only fire dispatches are still coming over the scanner as the county switched over to a new $16 million digital system.
"This is one of those things we are changing and people are complaining. It is not because we don't want people to know what is going on," he said. "We are trying to help ourselves. Because of technology, we don't need to listen to it."
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