Hi ArtHouseFilms and other Gratonites,
Yes, the air raid siren signals an emergency call for the fire department (and it tests every day at noon as others have noticed). Other than 7pm on Thursday nights to signal the start of drill (7-10pm every Thursday), siren does not go off for other events. FYI-It is the same number of revolutions for any type of call.
We respond to 500 calls each year (more than any other all volunteer dept), so it is very possible that you will hear 2-3 sirens in one day. The calls could be for a fire, but are more often for medical aids, vehicle accidents, trees/power lines down, etc. We respond to Sebastopol, Forestville, Gold Ridge, Occidental, Santa Rosa, and other towns when they have a large fire and they do the same for us, which happened twice last month- once on Vine Hill Road and again on Mill Station Road.
Most volunteer departments continue to use a siren to ensure the firefighters know there is a call. We do carry pagers, which work pretty well, but there are dead spots... just like a cell phone (and we know what that's like in West County). There have also been instances where the dispatch center cannot activate our pagers and the siren is the only way to call firefighters. As departments move to paid firefighters, the siren becomes less critical to ensure an adequate response. We are fortunate to have a great group of volunteers that can take time away from work/home to respond (and employers/families that permit it).
CALLING 9-1-1: It is best to call 9-1-1 and not a seven digit number during an emergency. Why?
1) It rings to the same place- Sonoma County Dispatch in Santa Rosa for unincorporated county and Sebastopol Police for Sebastopol (within the city limits- just because you have a Sebastopol zipcode, doesn't mean you are within their borders. Anything north of Mill Station Rd is Graton's service area)
2) The 9-1-1 system is designed to automatically bring up your address in the dispatch computer... calling the 7-digit number does not. This makes getting the address instantaneous and many people get flustered during an emergency and give the wrong information.
3) 9-1-1 is designed to call the emergency center assigned to your address. If you call another number, and it's not your provider, they will have to transfer you to the correct center... again, wasting time.
4) My wife used to be a 9-1-1 police dispatcher. She says that the 9-1-1 lines are the highest priority, the seven-digit is second, followed by the business lines.
5) Exception: If you are calling from a cell phone, you may or may not get the right dispatch center. Historically, your call would go to CHP dispatch in Vallejo. Newer phones/cell systems are routing calls based on the cell tower to the right dispatch center. Theoretically, if you call 9-1-1 in downtown Sebastopol, you should get their police department. So... in you cell phones, you can add 565-1212 for police and 576-1371 for fire for any unincorporated area such as Graton.
If there are any questions, please post them publicly or privately.
Thank you,
Bill Bullard, Deputy Chief
Graton Fire Protection District<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
3205 Ross Road, P.O. Box A<o:p></o:p>
Graton, CA 95444<o:p></o:p>
mailto:
[email protected] (
[email protected])https://www.gratonfire.com (https://www.gratonfire.com/)707-823-5515 ext. 3707-823-7251 fax<o:p></o:p>
Bill, I appreciate your valuable information! But, what can one do in the situation I described above, when 911 is so busy that no one can get through and we are at the accident scene on 101? It did happen to be Christmas Eve, which is very eventful, I'm sure, for the dispatchers.