To the Oak Orchard, Riverdale, Long Neck and surrounding community residents....

 

The Indian River Volunteer Fire Company offers this communication in order to highlight some areas of concern that have been shared recently.

It has been brought to our attention that once again there are concerns about our the fire siren.  While many residents have moved and/or relocated here from areas that did not have a fire siren nor a volunteer fire company. Please know that many of the residents actually see the value in the fire siren and how it plays an integral role in the composition of our community.  Many residents have been raised with it their entire life and recognize the value it plays! 

The Indian River Volunteer Fire Company has taken the time to explain why our fire siren or whistle still blows and will continued to do so. 

Please know first and foremost, the fire service in many rural communities is 100% volunteer and that volunteers are needed each and every day.  The Indian River Volunteer Fire Company along with the entire Delaware Fire Service saves taxpayers and local residents hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions of dollars on an annual basis.

The Indian River Volunteer Fire Company has provided service to the citizens of our community since 1953.  During these years, all fire protection and extinguishment by Indian River Volunteer Fire Company has been 100% volunteer.  The fire siren was installed during this era and has been alerting Indian River members and the public ever since.

Why does the fire siren sound? / Why do we still have a fire siren? 

Simply put… the purposes of the fire siren are to alert citizens and the volunteer fire company members of an emergency situation where help is needed. 

When a call for fire or EMS service is received at Sussex County Emergency Operations Center in Georgetown, it sends out an alert to emergency personnel in the jurisdiction. For most calls, an alert is sent to a pager and to responders’ cellphones via text message. Only in the most severe cases does the fire siren sound – a serious accident involving a trapped person, a fire, a cardiac arrest, or if no one has responded after an eight minute time period. 

While we rely on other forms of communications such as pagers, cell phones, radios, and text messages they have their shortcomings.  Batteries die; power outages with no generator back-ups; pagers and cell phones are not on the person; poor, inadequate, inferior or no radio reception; text messaging and smart phone apps like Chief Backstage and Chief Messaging are often delayed, with some emergency alerts not coming through these devices at all.  The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recommends that there be at least two (2) reliable means of communication to alert firefighters and first responders.  The siren gets the firefighters’ attention at any time as well as gets the attention of local residents and motorist in the immediate area.

What does the fire siren sounding mean?

It has been asked if the fire siren cycles could be reduced, to which we complied and reduced the number of cycles.  Now we are being asked to eliminate that fire siren unless it is the need for a catastrophic emergency. 

We ask you, have you ever called 911 in a panic, because your loved one is not breathing, your recently remodeled kitchen was on fire, or a tree has fallen into your house - the one you worked and saved for most of your life and now it is destroyed?  What classifies as a catastrophic event or emergency?

We ask you as the citizens of our immediate fire district to think about this if you will.  Have you ever thought when that fire siren is sounding in the middle of the night -- what it means?  It means there is a member of your community, friend, neighbor or even loved one, waking up out of their warm bed from a sound sleep, to go to help a total stranger?  That volunteer who just woke up, does not go back to sleep in five to ten minutes, they are up and awake for possibly the rest of the night or morning helping others, to then go to work the next morning, after helping someone in need. 

Have your ever thought that during Thanksgiving or Christmas when the whistle blows at any time, that member is leaving their family gathering, kids opening presents, or that only day off that week they have to spend with their significant other?  Yes, this is what the volunteer signed up for, this is what was volunteered for - to do just that, but, what if we didn't volunteer?  What if no one came? 

The fire siren is not just for the firefighter.  The fire siren can also serve to alert the public that someone is in trouble, something is wrong, and firefighters and or fire trucks are going to be coming through the streets. 

Instead of the fire siren being thought of as a nuisance, it should be considered a valuable and useful tool.  It could be alerting you that one of your neighbors may be in trouble in your development or a loved one across town.  It may be sounding because your neighbor's house is on fire. Seven cycles of the fire siren, one and a half minutes of a fire siren really is not a complaint when we focus on the big picture.

The siren remains an important tool for the fire department because it is the final backup for firefighters.

While the siren is no longer the front line of fire dispatching in many communities, sirens continue to operate in communities throughout Delaware and across the country. These devices continue to be a valuable resource to alert volunteers and the community when emergency services are needed.

Sirens are an invaluable tool when pager batteries die, cell phones have no service, or firefighters are in weak signal areas, such as inside metal buildings, manufactured homes, or basements. 

Sirens are typically activated by electronic external receivers controlled by the Sussex County Emergency Operations Center that are far more reliable than interior portable equipment, and many volunteer fire companies have kept their sirens in service for that reason.

While these faded red-plated horns have given way to "hand-held radios" and most recently to radio paging, cell phones, or computer aided dispatching as the primary alerting methodology. The siren is still the most preferred method for community awareness.

Pagers, cell phones and other electronic do not alert motorists and pedestrians to use caution and yield to first responders in the same fashion as the siren does.

It has been stated that fire siren decreases property values!  The fire service would counter that it has well documented in Delaware that the volunteer fire services saves taxpayers millions of dollars on an annual basis in taxes and as well as insurance premiums.  The estimated savings to Delaware taxpayers is $212,000,000 pursuant to the Auditor of Accounts -- https://auditor.delaware.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2019/09/Fire-Service-2019-Annual-Report-with-Logo_.pdf

The quality of your local fire service directly impacts your homeowner’s insurance rating (ISO Rating) for insurance premium purposes and could lessen the annualized premiums that one pays to insure their properties.

Many residents can recall when the nearest fire company response for the Oak Orchard, Riverdale and Long Neck communities were from the Millsboro, Lewes and/or Rehoboth Beach fire companies.

Other community commentary:

https://eastonvfd.org/fire-sirens-why-are-they-needed; and

https://www.capegazette.com/article/blare-fire-siren-can-change-your-life/193931

Additional information regarding fire sirens can be viewed via the following links:

http://irvfc.com/gallery/detail/16082

http://irvfc.com/gallery/detail/16079

http://www.irvfc.com/gallery/detail/15579?ss=1

http://www.irvfc.com/gallery/detail/10302