The Aleppo Township Volunteer Fire Company is working to balance traditional emergency notifications with residents’ concerns.
Since August, company officials have received several complaints about the fire station’s siren and have requested that it be silenced.
One of the complaints was about it going off at 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. Another suggested having quiet hours, but did not specify a time.
The company voted earlier this month to keep the siren in operation, even though firefighters receive alerts on their pagers and cellphones.
“Our position is that siren is for public safety,” Fire Chief Bill Davis Jr. said on April 21.
“Not only does it alert our members, but it alerts the community of an emergency event somewhere, whether it’s in our town or in somebody else’s town. We are making some changes with the tone of the siren and the length of the siren.”
Recent adjustments include changing the siren tone cycle from five down to two, and reducing overall wailing time from 52 seconds to around 40 seconds.
Davis said getting a new modern controller would allow for better siren programming. He raised the siren and resident complaints at a recent township commissioners’ workshop meeting.
Township officials responded to the plight on April 20 by authorizing $5,200 be spent on a new siren controller.
“They are a large part of the public safety of our township,” Commissioner President Judy Haluka said. “I felt strongly that residents of Aleppo would support the upgrade to the siren controller.”
Fire company President Tim Scott said they did not have any money for the controller, and everyone is grateful for the commissioners’ support.
“We’re trying to appease the residents,” Scott said. “I know you can’t make everybody happy, but we need to make our guys comfortable with what’s going on, plus try to make residents comfortable with how it’s working.”
The device, also called a decoder, is coming from BearCom. It is the same company used by Allegheny County and several local fire departments for their communications needs.
It’s expected to take about four to six weeks for delivery and installation, and a few days for training and programming.
The company plans to host an event later this year to educate residents on the siren adjustments.
“The amount of stuff we can do with the controller is just endless,” Davis said. “We can adjust it to how high the tone goes, the duration of it. We can adjust for daylight hours, for evening hours to tone it down.”
Haluka understands the township’s volunteer fire company is not the only one with financial constraints.
“Fire companies are on a shoestring budget,” Haluka said. “This expense was not budgeted, nor expected, therefore it represents a burden to the company. In addition, all fire companies are struggling to maintain volunteer responders.
“The siren is used to notify both the fire personnel as well as residents of the township that they are being dispatched. It enhances response as well as helps ensure the safety of residents who may be driving by informing them that fire personnel will be responding and that fire apparatus will be on the roads shortly.”
Aleppo emergency management also uses the siren, in a different tone, to alert folks of other emergencies beyond fire calls.
Aleppo VFC was established on farmland by 13 residents in 1946.
Davis’ grandfather, Clyde Davis, was one of the founding members.
Its siren was originally set up in nearby woods.
The company grew from a small bay and a truck to a five-vehicle fleet with 28 members; 14 are active firefighters from multiple municipalities.
The fire station was razed in the early 2000s and a new one was built on the same site in 2003.
Firefighters worked out of the industrial park during construction.
The fire company contracts with Aleppo and Sewickley Heights for fire service, and also responds to about a dozen other towns via mutual aid.
Firefighters responded to 247 calls last year and 100 calls this year as of mid-April.
The annual operating budget is about $220,000.
Neighbors unbothered
The siren complaints did not come from residents Earl and Judi Seiler. The couple has lived across from the fire station along Weber Road for the past decade.
“It’s not a bother at all,” Judi Seiler said about the siren. She believes it is a necessary tool to alert people of what is going on.
“People come up the street and they are so unconscious unless the fire whistles on. If a truck’s pulling out, who the heck do they know (if there is an emergency)? It’s no bother. People are cranky.”
Earl Seiler said they have become accustomed to the sounds.
“It was here when we moved here,” he said. “I knew it was a fire hall. I knew fire halls had whistles.”
Earl Seiler said he noticed “the number of blasts” has decreased.
Other nearby residents declined to comment.