An old tradition of the San Juan Bautista Volunteer Fire
Department is making a comeback with the return to duty of the fire
siren that sits atop the station.
An old tradition of the San Juan Bautista Volunteer Fire Department is making a comeback with the return to duty of the fire siren that sits atop the station.
Fire Chief Rick Cokley said the siren for years worked pretty much when it wanted to until it was repaired. It now activates every time the fire department receives an emergency call.
The siren was put back into service Friday and has been activated three times.
“We’ve had three incidents that set the alarm off,” said Fire Capt. Greg Lopez. “One in the early morning and two daytime calls.”
The fire department realizes a few residents may be bothered by the siren’s blare, but it is vital to their operation for two reasons. The insurance services organization, which rates the city’s fire protection, requires a secondary means of dispatching volunteers besides using pagers. Also, because the department does not have paid staff to drive the fire engines, it must ensure that every possible volunteer is notified of each emergency call. Cokley has told the City Council that too often volunteer members do not respond to an emergency because they were in the shower, mowing the lawn or left their pager in their car.
“People will know when the department is responding to calls,” Lopez said. “They won’t be left in the dark wondering.”
He said the siren is another means of communicating among the volunteers – one more tool they can use.
“It’s a long-standing tradition. It was here before modern technology; it was all we had,” Lopez said. “And that may be all we may have if our repeater (paging) system goes down. It’s just another way we can be paged.”
