Our paging system is not always reliable, depending on the location. There have been many instances, even recently, that the siren is blowing, but a firefighters pager has not gone off. If no one were to respond to an emergency, this could be disastrous, so the siren does serve as a back up to alert firefighters there is an emergency to respond to.

The siren also serves as a warning to nearby residents that there is an emergency response in progress, making you more alert to incoming personnel and outgoing apparatus. If you've ever driven past the fire house, you'll see there is a large parking lot in front of the station that local children use to ride their bikes around on as well as people walking across if there is a hall rental. This will also serve as a warning to those people, that they need to move out of the way as equipment will be responding and firefighters will be pulling in quickly to respond.

The siren also makes the public aware of how busy your local volunteer fire company is day and night. It may wake you up at 2 AM when it blows, but remember, you can roll back over and go to sleep, those of us that are volunteers may be up for several hours fighting a fire, or rescuing someone trapped in their vehicle. We still have to go to work in the morning, get our children ready for school, or do other daily chores after being out on a call. We are volunteering our time to help others, and we are away from our family during that time and may even risk our lives. So remember the next time you hear the siren blow that there are men and women volunteering their time to help others and maybe even say a little prayer to watch over them!