Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Siren Alert

Since we have been staying in the suburban Irondequoit area of Rochester for several weeks now, there has been a consistent mystery. Not just the ghost we call Sammy, who continues to cause minor electrical disturbances. There is a siren that goes off loud enough for us to hear quite clearly, almost daily. At first we thought that it went off to announce a certain time, like noon or quitting time at 5:00. But it is never consistent and never a specific time.
During the first few days we thought it might be a tornado warning, due to the weather the East Coast was experiencing. But Rochester is on the coast of Lake Ontario inland of the unusual weather and other than rain and winter snow they seem to be insulated from tornados.
After never finding a pattern to the blasts, coming when the weather was clear, we went on line to search for an answer. Of course that is when Sammy acts up and causes a simple search to become a chore. I did find out that it was most probably a Chrysler Alarm siren, originally manufactured for a cold war air raid warning. Rochester was listed as having one of the last original Chrysler Sirens still operating in the entire country. I even saw pictures of the mammoth device and a schematic on how it was built. But no indication as to why the one still working would be going off at different times of the day, unless it was actually not working that well and had a schedule of its mechanical own.
We were finally down to searches of Fire Departments in the area. Through the modern miracle of electronic devices which can not only locate addresses, but pinpoint your own location as well, we discovered that we were close enough to the Ridge Culver Fire Department to make it the source of the siren. Since Ridge Culver is not Irondequoit or Rochester it was illusive at first, but here is what we found:

Ridge Culver Fire is a combined career and volunteer fire department that is divided into three groups, The Ridge Culver Fire District, The Ridge Culver Fire Department and The Ridge Culver Fire Association

So this station is a combined career and volunteer fire department. The siren is the alert for the volunteer's to come to the station. Mystery solved, but quandary created. It has gone off at least once a day and twice on others. When do these volunteer's work at their real jobs? But most importantly... in this modern day miracle of electronic devices I used to find the Fire Department... isn't there a better, QUIETER, way to notify the volunteers? I mean really? Their best means to get volunteers to the station is a cold war era Chrysler Air Raid Siren? Here is an idea they might want to consider.
CHRYSLER AIR RAID SIREN
The Most Powerful Siren Ever Built 1952-1957, 180 HP V-8, 3 TONS, 12 FEET LONG

OR....
MOTOROLA INSTANT TALK PHONE
The Most Powerful Phone Ever Built -2011, 3G, 4.62 Ounces, 4.7" x 2.3" x 0.5"

You do the math.
As you were,
Jay

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