This is a response to hopefully answer questions that people may have regarding the blowing of the siren in Galena again. A few months ago, the fire company and Board of Directors approved to start blowing the siren again for Fire and EMS calls. Several years ago, the company had agreed to discontinue blowing the siren for Fire and EMS calls but that it would still blow for Civil Defense alerts. Upon attempting some recent testing of the siren, it was determined that the power wire inside of the control box had been disconnected. So, the siren would not have activated for Civil Defense. Now in the unlikely event that the Civil Defense siren was needed, and it would not blow puts a huge liability on myself as the Fire Chief, knowing that the siren did not work, and I did not take any action to fix it. So that’s when the power was reconnected, and the siren started blowing again. When it was proposed to start blowing the siren again, I recommended that the siren only be activated for Cardiac Arrests, Working Structure Fires, and Motor Vehicle Accidents with entrapment, and it will only be activated for the initial alert and not the re alerts. Once the radio technicians looked into reprogramming the siren board, it was determined that it was super old and unable to be reprogrammed. We are in the process of ordering a new board that is programmable. As soon as it comes in, the siren will activate significantly less. It is just going to take time. An argument that some have had is that there is other technology like cell phones and pagers. Just last week there was an issue the app for responders getting alerts on their cell phones, which is the way that most receive calls. So that would leave the siren as a the other means of alerting responders that there is an emergency. With that being said, every time that siren blows, someone somewhere is having an emergency and needs help. I am asking for everyone to just please be patient. I know the siren is disruptive but again, remember when the siren blows, that someone is experiencing an emergency and depends on us to get them the help they need. We are always looking for new members. Applications are easily found on our website, www.galenavfc3.org. We offer a tax incentive for any member with at least 3 years of active service, LOSAP, life insurance and many other benefits. Any questions please call 410-648-5050 or email galenafirechief@gmail.com. I hope that this helps answer some questions, if not, please email me.

Respectfully,

Bert Piasecki-Fire Chief

Galena Volunteer Fire Company