VE Day - WWII air raid sirens

[rickshaw]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=589&v=WgaCNEQzL1Q&feature=emb_logo

[perttime]

Sirens are very much alive here in Finland. If a new part of town is built, a siren will be put in it. They give a 7 second test whoop on the first monday of every month at 12 sharp.

[scooter]

Town I grew up in Northern Jersey used to test their siren by sounding noon every weekday.  It would also be used as a secondary for the fire department (five cycles), first aid squad (three cycles), school closings in the winter, and curfew on Cabbage/Mischief and Halloween night.

Now, the only time I hear one is a digital one when I drive by ACY, and the 177th is doing an exercise.

[rickshaw]

Downunder sirens used to be used to alert the CFS/RFS crews.  Being volunteer firefighters they'd need to be summoned from far and wide in case of fire or emergency such as a car accident.  Just down the street we used to hear the siren every friday at midday when they tested it.  It would set all the dogs off as well.  Nowadays, they just use phone alerts.  Occasionally they still use the siren but relatively rarely nowadays.   I rather miss it's howl from down the end of the street at the firestation.   

[Mossie]

There used to be one mounted right across the road from me on the local fire station during the cold war period, they tested it every week.

There's one at BP chemical plant a few miles away, to alert locals if there's a chemical release.  It's tested every Wednesday and I hear it a lot at the mo with working from home.

It's a sound that's always put the chills up me a bit.

[zenrat]

I used to live about 200m from a fire station.  They had a siren on a post and tested it every so often.

When I worked at the poo farm they tested the evacuation alarm every week and did full "surprise" plant evacuation drills 6 monthly.  Where our compound was we couldn't hear the sirens so they used to ring us up and give us the nod the day before and then on the day give us a 5 minute warning,

[NARSES2]

There used to be one mounted right across the road from me on the local fire station during the cold war period, they tested it every week.

There's one at BP chemical plant a few miles away, to alert locals if there's a chemical release.  It's tested every Wednesday and I hear it a lot at the mo with working from home.

It's a sound that's always put the chills up me a bit.

Used to hear the local fire station one being tested when at school and most steel works had them to alert people if there were "problems" with blast or BOS furnaces, but haven't heard one for years.

Like you Mossie it's a sound that used to send a chill through me as a kid, but that was probably because of the stories my mum/dad/grandparents would tell me when they heard it. I swear they were designed to scare the hell of me  The stories that is .

[Mossie]

My reaction relates to that too, but probably more so the threat of nuclear attack that I grew up with.  There's also the implication of a release from the plant.

[NARSES2]

My reaction relates to that too, but probably more so the threat of nuclear attack that I grew up with. 

That's an interesting one Mossie. We never really thought about nuclear attack in the 50/60's as kids. We'd heard all these stories of the Blitz, and indeed played on/in bomb sites, that it never occurred to us it would be that much more serious ? Odd I know, but even Government propaganda at the time was geared to surviveability. It was only when we got a lot older that we thought about it, and even then there were two ways of looking at it. No 1 was to grow your hair, wear scruffy clothes and go on demonstrations. No 2 was to get a smart suit, go down the dance hall and chat the ladies up