Polson officials silence city's sirens

Residents and visitors to Polson will not need to be concerned about blaring air raid sirens anymore now that Clint Cottle, Polson City Fire Chief, requested that emergency dispatchers do not use them any longer.

“Years ago they were set to go off during the day in case of a fire call,” Cottle said. “That’s how they alerted everyone.”

But now that cell phone and pager technology is so widely used, the need for the loud scream of the siren is not effective, and confuses some travelers, he said. 

Some drivers think the sound of the siren means an emergency vehicle is approaching. 

When those drivers pull to the side of the road and do not see any emergency traffic, they become confused, he said.

Cottle said one piece of interesting siren history sat under a table at the emergency dispatch center when he worked there somewhere around the year 2000.

At that time, when an emergency call arose and it was time to sound the siren, a dispatcher reached under a table to a small cast iron box that held a crank handle. 

To operate the system, they began cranking, he said.

But even though the sirens will not be used in everyday service, Cottle said the system will remain hooked up for use in case of an emergency. 

Ronan Fire Chief Mark Clary said their siren is still in use.

Ronan emergency workers continue to use the siren to alert firefighters who might be away from a cell phone or pager that an emergency fire call is waiting.

One of Clary’s problems is not siren-related at all. But, instead. Clary said sometimes drivers do not realize an emergency vehicle is racing toward the scene of an incident and do not pull to the side of the road, causing the department to lose precious time when seconds can be critical.