Graton group seeks to silence siren
By BOB NORBERG
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: Thursday, April 1, 2010 at 4:03 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, April 1, 2010 at 4:03 a.m.
For decades, Graton's fire department has relied on a World War II-era siren to summon volunteers to fires and medical emergencies, as well as marking noontime every day and the beginning of its weekly training exercises.
"It's the most reliable way of alerting volunteers. It is the most dependable," said Bill Bullard, who is deputy chief of the all-volunteer department.
Irritated neighbors, however, contend that the Civil Defense siren is nothing more than nostalgia and easily replaced by pagers and text-messaging.
"We believe the siren is simply technologically unnecessary," said Danelle Jacobs, a Graton resident for 13 years whose house is within 2 miles of the station. "We are used to it, but I certainly hear it. This is more of a tradition issue and not a public-safety issue."
Jacobs is one of several members of Citizens for a Better Community that filed suit March 22 in Sonoma County Superior Court for an injunction to stop the fire department from moving the siren to a new firehouse.
"We are just saying it is not necessary anymore and it is time to stop," said Jacobs.
The siren is at the site of the fire station in what locals affectionately call downtown Graton. But the department hopes to break ground this summer about a mile away on a $4 million firehouse at Highway 116 and Green Valley Road, Bullard said. The department, which relies on property taxes to fund its $600,000 annual budget, is receiving a 30-year loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the facility.
Graton is one of a few rural fire departments in Sonoma County that still use sirens.
The county's central dispatch center remotely operates the siren at the same time it sends messages to the volunteers' pagers.
Bullard said the siren is necessary to reliably notify volunteers in the hilly West County area where cell phone reception is spotty and pagers do not always go off.
"Pagers are consistently inconsistent," Bullard said. "Pagers work, but not 100 percent. "When you are talking about an emergency call, if someone is not breathing or their house is on fire, it is not enough."
Nearly all Sonoma County fire departments discontinued sirens years ago, relying on pagers, phone texting and even fax machines.
New digital pagers and rebroadcasters, repeaters and microwaves can reach all but the most remote areas, said Ken Reese, the Sonoma County dispatch communications manager.
"As a whole it is very reliable," Reese said. "It has been my experience that it is not very often we get phone calls that say our pagers are not going off. If it does, a lot of times it is human error."
Forestville Fire Department stopped using the siren at night 10 years ago, when it began having volunteers sleep in the station, and discontinued sounding the siren completely three years ago.
"This works for Forestville; I cannot speak for Graton," Forestville Fire Chief Dan Northern said.
Sonoma County Fire Chief Mark Aston said he believes sirens are outdated.
"Technology has evolved where we have high reliability with pagers, and it has diminished the value of the siren," Aston said.
"In Graton, it is a community choice issue . . . the siren may have a value that I am not aware of."
You can reach Staff Writer Bob Norberg at 521-5206 or [email protected].