Malfunctioning Warning Sirens Confuse Residents
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - When warning sirens blared in Fort Worth last Thursday, fear turned to confusion.
"And it went off and they just kept going off over and over again to the point I came out here to look around to see if there was weather coming up," said Becky Wright who works at Meadowbrook Golf Course near one of the sirens.
"Well, I was kind of confused!" laughed Gary Utley who lives Meadowbrook neighborhood. "It was overcast but it wasn't cloudy. And it went off and it didn't sound like it was real loud, probably about half tone or have pitch," said golfer Gary Utley.
The sirens had malfunctioned.
The sirens can only be activated by computer or radio signal. So what set off the false alarms?
"I think it looks like radio," said the cities emergency coordinator Juan Ortiz. "We've already isolated the software. We did that over the weekend and concluded that is not the problem."
Fort Worth emergency planners believe a stray radio signal switched 6 sirens on in east and north parts of the city.
The city has isolated the parts of the system where the problem occurred to prevent it from happening again.
But it's still trying to track down where the stray signal came from.
Investigators say it is possible someone intentionally broadcast a signal on that frequency to set off the system.
But, they believe it's far more likely that construction or work crews powered up some outdated radio equipment that operates on the same wavelength.
The city is searching urgently for the source of the signals saying it is a top priority.
"We're checking with surrounding communities that have similar equipment to make sure their equipment is not the potential source of the problem," Ortiz said. "It is my top priority. And we're going to get it resolved," said Ortiz.
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