IN DEFENCE OF SIRENS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 159, 23 July 1937, Page 4

IN DEFENCE OF SIRENS

Traffic Officers Reply To Fire Brigade whistle at the station ' Eeference to a protest made by Superintendent E. Henderson, of the Hastings Fire Brigade, at the quarterly meeting of the Hastings Fire Board ycgarding the use of sirens by traffic officers was made to the Herald-Tribune this morning by Mr. J. H. E. Semple, Main Highways Board inSpector, and also by Mr. D. Manu, Hastings borough traffic inspector. Mr. Semple pointed out that he Taroly used the siren in town and, when he did, he gave merely brief blasts which, he said, he could npt imagine being mistaken for the siren at the fire sta; tion. He had made inquiries, and had found ,.that, on one ocacsion when the brigade had been called out unneeessarily by the use of a siren, he was aetually in Court and the noise complained of had been created by a siren which was being tested in a garage near the fire station. Mr. Manu said he felt that the inspectors were fully entitled to use the siren but that, if anything should be changed, the alarm used at the station to summon bho firemen should be altercd. The siren, he explained, had become generally recognised as a gignal to traffic to stop and give way. For this purpose the siren was equally appropriate on fire-enginea and traffic in* spectors' vehicles. He failed to 'see why there should be two difflerent calls made for one particular purpose. The siren on the fire-engines should not be changed. On this poiat Mr. Mann was definite. But, he pointed out, as the siren at the station was purely for summoning fire-flghteri, it would be better to hav6 an intermittefit high-frequeney whistle. That would be far more penetrating than a sir6n, which had a great disadvantage in that it was difficult .to judge the direetion from where the sound was coming. Even a boat whistle would be more suitable, suggested Mr. Mann. It will^be recalled that, when the siren was first installed in place of the bell formerly used, loud protests were made by all sections of the community about the excessive noiSe which the siren made when blown at? night, disturbing the rest of residents within a large area. '