North Franklin Township Installing Sirens For Severe Weather, Disasters And Fire Calls
NORTH FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) - North Franklin Township officials say it's time to take action. As weather patterns continue to change, they say they want to be proactive if and when severe weather rolls in or a man-made disaster should happen.
On Thursday, the first of three sirens was installed in North Franklin Township, and they're the first of their kind in Washington County. The siren is set up in the back of the volunteer fire department and will go off during a tornado or severe flood warning and for fire calls.
A five-minute siren with a steady tone will go off if there's a tornado warning or severe flooding in the township. A 30-second siren will go off for fire calls and will sound more like a fire truck.
"We decided with weather situations as they've been developing -- yesterday was a perfect example of that where we got close to a tornado warning, we had a tornado watch," said North Franklin Township Board of Supervisors Chairman Bob Sabot.
"What this is going to act as is replacing our old siren which is really antiquated and it's been turned off for several years. (It) used to blow for two minutes," said North Franklin Township Fire Chief Dave Bane.
In addition to North Franklin Volunteer Fire Company, a siren will also be installed at the township's Lincoln Hill substation and Greenhill substation. Township officials say they've been planning this siren system since an explosion leveled a home in the township in 2019. On top of that, there was the outbreak of tornadoes that rolled through neighboring communities last fall.
"You can be complacent and say that will never happen until it does. Then, what will happen, residents will be at our meeting saying, 'Well, why didn't you warn us Why didn't you have this in place?'" said Sabot.
While some residents are happy to see the sirens come to the township, others have mixed feelings especially when it comes to the fire alarm side of things.
"My wife and I are all for the weather siren," said resident Gary Stewart.
"What's it gonna do to property values? Are houses gonna go down because the alarms next door?" said resident Joe Cohen.
Sabot said the sirens are costing the township around $60,000 and are coming from the township's budget. Sabot says the sirens should be up and running next week.
