Pictures of the Day June 18, 2009
The old civil defense and fire siren. Still in operation after 50 years, theres-abouts.THE SIRENPosted for Thursday June 18th............................Probably should have done a little more research before posting this, but......................
After 50-some years, this old siren can still put out a wail.
Not positive when Fairfax first got it, may have been during WWII, but this siren was used by the Fairfax Fire Department since it was organized. Before 9-1-1, you called a special number, and it rang into a residence. For many years, it was at the Funeral Home. The person who answered would take the information down, then flip a switch, triggering the siren, which back then, sat on the roof of the old fire station. It was located where the Historical Society museum is now, across from Cliff Ross's Gulf station. The firemen would hear the sirens and respond to the station.
In the late 70's/early '80's we switched to a red phone system, where red phone receivers were placed in different houses here in town. We had one at our house. Each house also had a calling tree of about 5 or 6 firemen they had to call. The fire phone would ring, one of several people would answer, take the information, flip a switch to sound the alarm, then call the firemen they had on their list.
We then switched to a pager system connected to the red phones, where a person would flip the switch triggering the pagers that the firefighters had, and then announced where the fire was.
Now we have 9-1-1.
Back in the day, a card was passed out to each household with the number to call and what to say in case of an emergency. It also listed where the fire was, based on the number of times the siren wailed.
I can still remember doing something with Dad, and suddenly hearing the siren go off, and Dad stopping what he was doing and taking off. Or waking up in the night to the alarm going off and hearing Dad charge out the door.
When we had the red phone system, I used to help make the calls to the firemen.
One funny story about the fire sirens.
Back in the early '80s, a young couple with small kids moved into town. The wife, as a child, used to visit her grandmother in Quebec City. They used to have air raid drills, where a siren would sound, and residents would take shelter in their basements.
Old habits die hard.
One night, about 3am, the wife woke to the sound of loud continuous sirens. She got up, gathered her children and took shelter in their basement.
Enter her bleary-eyed husband.
"What are you doing?"
"THERE'S AN AIR RAID!! Didn't you hear the sirens?"
"That's the fire alarm. There's a fire in town somewhere."
The siren is not used to announce fire calls, but is on stanby in case of emergency. It still gets tested a couple of times a month.
