Arcata Fire Protection District Board of Directors
“This reply is from Fire Chief Desmond Cowan:
First, let me thank you all for your input on this matter. It’s good to know we live in a community that values its ties to the past. As part of our commitment to our community, we have taken the siren out of our auction and we are working with a number of interested parties who want to relocate the siren to a new site downtown and keep it as part of the Arcata heritage. With that being said, I’d like to clarify a few statements that have come up regarding the siren.
First, the siren is not used for emergency notification and in fact creates confusion and anxiety. We have had occasions on which the siren sounded at the “wrong” time and APD and our dispatch center were flooded with calls from people worried about a pending tsunami or other emergency. Tsunami sirens are typically located in the low-lying areas subject to inundation as a means of warning people to leave those areas. There was no plan to use the station siren for tsunami warnings. The siren hasn’t been used for emergency notification for over 20 years and serves no operational purpose for the Fire District. Our Firefighters are dispatched by radio, pager, and text message.
Second, the siren that is on the building today has not been there since the 40’s. The siren was mounted on the station around 1979. It is just one of a number of notification devices that have been used over the 130 year history of our organization. The siren replaced an air horn located at City Hall. The air horn replaced a steam whistle, and the steam whistle replaced the bell around 1946.
Lastly, while some residents have expressed interest in keeping the siren, many others have called over the years to complain about the volume of the siren, the impact of the sound on their businesses and homes, and the confusion with tsunami warnings or emergency notification. Using our historic bell will provide the community with a connection to our past that uses very little electricity, doesn't negatively impact our neighbors or the environment, and still allows us to provide a daily noon chime as well as a way to signal the start of community events. Also, the bell will be much much more energy efficient and less expensive to operate and maintain. The last restoration of the tower and siren cost an estimated $12,000 in donated labor and materials.
The decision to replace the siren is not one that was taken lightly or quickly. It developed out of many long months of planning for the renovation of the Arcata Fire Station. A variety of factors were weighed in the process. The plan adopted by our organization and approved by the Design Review Committee includes the return of our historic bell that will be mounted on the roof of the renovated station. The siren and tower have deteriorated to the point where they must be removed as a simple matter of safety.
The modernization of the Arcata Station is one part of a two-site project to upgrade service to all of our residents. The budget for these projects must support the work at Arcata as well as the modernization of the McKinleyville Fire Station. Knowing that the noon notification is important to the community, we chose to use our resources to return to our past and use the bronze bell that stood in a tower behind the station for decades. The firefighters protecting this town in its earliest years were summoned by a bell.
Arcata will not lose the unique, small town charm that comes from the daily notification from the top of the fire station. We will go back to our past, with a bell that summoned our firefighters for years. Our goal is to have the bell ring at noon, and start of the Kinetic Sculpture Race, Easter Egg Hunt, and other community events. There is no doubt that this will be a change, just as there was a change from a bell to a steam whistle, a steam whistle to an air horn, and an air horn to a siren. Each time the community adjusted and adopted the new tone.
I will close by reiterating: we have taken the siren out of our auction and we are working with a number of interested parties who want to relocate the siren to a new site downtown and keep it as part of the Arcata heritage.
Please feel free to email me at dcowan@arcatafire.org or call the station at 825-2000 if you have any other questions. Thank you.
Desmond Cowan
Fire Chief
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