Volunteer firefighters from Ławszowa (Osiecznica commune) shared on their Facebook profile a post by firefighters from Prochowice. It turned out that one of the residents of the aforementioned town is extremely irritated by the sound of fire sirens. The woman addressed the mayor of Prochowice:
Dear Madam Mayor
I recently moved to Prochowice and, although the town seems pleasant, one issue keeps me awake at night—namely, the fire service siren (the sirens are extremely loud), which is turned on at various times of day and night.
This is particularly troublesome because every time (especially at night) the siren wakes me and my several-month-old child, who becomes frightened and cries. This also means additional sleepless periods during the night.
Personally, I see no point in waking half the town because of a fire/accident. Unfortunately, their notification system is from the Stone Age. Once, summoning volunteer firefighters in this way made sense and was necessary, but nowadays [...] in the 21st century, there are computers, mobile phones, etc., so this howling is unnecessary. (What if the commune bought them an SMS gateway and each volunteer received a notification).
Best regards, Iza
The firefighters from Prochowice responded to Ms Iza as follows:
It is not possible to stop activating the sirens. Not only because this is the officially required and commonly accepted form of alarm, but above all because it is the most effective one. SMS messages were used in our unit for three years, but the system failed. SMS messages often did not reach our firefighters. Unfortunately, the mobile network often fails.
The siren signal is used not only to summon firefighters, who know that they must report to the station. It is also a sign to residents that they should check whether anything bad is happening near their homes.
Sometimes people do not realize how important and truly significant something is until they themselves need help. The siren does not blare every day; last year, it sounded 143 times. Of these, 10–20 callouts took place late at night. If the siren sounds at night, it means that something truly serious is happening.
What do you think?