Central Florida & Surrounding Siren Dicussion

[Thundercode]

Are there any Clayton Whirlwinds still out there?

None in the "wild" it seems, I did not even know what one was before a quick google search, I did however find this video of one in a private collection. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhWA17rA2JE Very interesting how they were made in Daytona, as that is a not too far drive from where I am in Ocala, there is also a topic on the board about these sirens, but not much information.

Also on a sad/urgent note, Crystal River Nuclear Power's System might be inactive now, and it will be gone soon for good with the decommissioning of the reactor there, as they are switching to coal only. This is quite unfortunate as hearing this system test while on a camping trip down there when I was 5, got me hooked to sirens. I think they are possibly inactive now as just this weekend I was down there and none of the sirens appeared to have power connection, I arrived Friday but unfortunately a few hours after noon(Which is when they tested every Friday), So I cannot confirm whether its active or inactive yet. Any Information? :\

[Fletch]

Have you talked with Adam Pollak? He has a list of pretty much every siren ever installed in Florida (of which there were many, but many were removed in the late 80s and early 90s)

I'd be interested to see if he has any details on St. Pete's T-Bolt system or Pinellas County in general. There were at least 4 T-Bolts by my count.

[Thundercode]

Might as well do another "virtual" Central Florida area siren hunt, this time going to try and stick to Crystal River Area, however I will only document the Power Plant's system if one of the Whelens is interesting to note. Starting things off, This model 2 in Beverly Hills. https://www.google.com/maps/@28.917979, ... !1e1?hl=en Then there is this REALLY messed up Sentry in Pine Ridge, Actually very near the model 2 listed previously. https://www.google.com/maps/@28.933001, ... 6656?hl=en This Whelen is interesting to note in Homosassa Springs, as has less cells than most of the others in the system. https://www.google.com/maps/@28.8058729 ... 6656?hl=en Yankeetown brings this "chopped" sterling. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Yanke ... !1e1?hl=en This screamer in Homosassa looks very healthy, and is actually still wired up, interesting. https://www.google.com/maps/@28.7122954 ... !1e1?hl=en And to wrap up, this Sentry starting to show signs of decay in Inverness Highlands. https://www.google.com/maps/@28.7983324 ... !1e1?hl=en These are probably all documented in files and such, but I like showing the streetview images as has another perspective of them as many are not photographed.

Also once again, any information on the status of the Crystal River System would be helpful, as the Whelens are showing signs of rust and do not appear to have power connected, Plus the plant is decommissioning the reactor and this system will not last much longer. ;(

[Adam Pollak]

St Pete had an old I believe model 5 / Model 2 system from WW II. I have a list of those locations and they are all gone for sure. They then installed a T-Bolt system. I have a list of all those locations and they are all gone, except for the downtown one. The Pinellas jail siren was done separately. Crystal River Nuke originally had I believe it was 3, but definitely were ACA Hurricanes. They then installed a Sentry Siren system and later the Whelen system. Citrus County dual-purposed and re-purposed some of those sirens as fire sirens.

Almost of the Pinellas County cities and unincorporated areas via their VFDs had CD or dual Fire-CD sirens.

Every city in Polk County had a fire siren, except can't confirm Lakeland.

While fire siren systems are common in the Mid-Atlantic and New England areas, they are not common in the South, particularly Florida. Some cities down south by me had them, notably Plantation, but several in central FL did also. Beverly Hills VFD has a Model 2 and 2 x Model 5 system. Rainbow Lakes Estates has 3 x Model 2s. Every Marion (Ocala) County station built before the early '90s had a siren, almost all Model 2s.

As mentioned before, development, the fast rate of decay from salt by the coast and overall warmth and humidity, and hurricanes have brought down most.

As far as active newer systems- Oviedo has 2001s, Winter Park has 2001s and Modulators, Lady Lake installed a Whelen I believe. Crescent City replaced their 3T22 with a 2001.

[Fletch]

Apparently Sarasota County was looking to install a siren system along the coast in the early '80s for evacuations:

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid= ... 0570&hl=en

They apparently did install one siren, which is long gone. The article says it was an "electronic" siren and that Sentry Siren of Canyon City, CO, won the bid.

Did Sentry make an electronic siren? I'm not so familiar with their products, but I was curious which model they refer to.

[Thundercode]

St Pete had an old I believe model 5 / Model 2 system from WW II. I have a list of those locations and they are all gone for sure. They then installed a T-Bolt system. I have a list of all those locations and they are all gone, except for the downtown one. The Pinellas jail siren was done separately. Crystal River Nuke originally had I believe it was 3, but definitely were ACA Hurricanes. They then installed a Sentry Siren system and later the Whelen system. Citrus County dual-purposed and re-purposed some of those sirens as fire sirens.

Almost of the Pinellas County cities and unincorporated areas via their VFDs had CD or dual Fire-CD sirens.

Every city in Polk County had a fire siren, except can't confirm Lakeland.

While fire siren systems are common in the Mid-Atlantic and New England areas, they are not common in the South, particularly Florida. Some cities down south by me had them, notably Plantation, but several in central FL did also. Beverly Hills VFD has a Model 2 and 2 x Model 5 system. Rainbow Lakes Estates has 3 x Model 2s. Every Marion (Ocala) County station built before the early '90s had a siren, almost all Model 2s.

As mentioned before, development, the fast rate of decay from salt by the coast and overall warmth and humidity, and hurricanes have brought down most.

As far as active newer systems- Oviedo has 2001s, Winter Park has 2001s and Modulators, Lady Lake installed a Whelen I believe. Crescent City replaced their 3T22 with a 2001.

Unfortunately in the past few years, Marion County Fire & Rescue has been rebuilding most of their stations, very few original stations remain, with only 2 I know of that still have a intact(but defunct) siren. Ocala also had 1 known siren, but the station was demolished entirely, and the general area along with, to have a huge road re-working, the siren used to be by where the Highway Patrol station in Ocala is. Now the area is governmental buildings and a field for events and recreational activities. Supposedly this was either an SD-10 or a XT22, a red SD-10 outside one of the fire stations on ground(Mentioned early in thread by another user) could possibly be said siren, and it was moved there for storage. If one of you could clarify this it would be great!

Also on another note, this upcoming weekend I am going back to Crystal River, however will not be there for testing time, I can possibly get a better look at the state of the system, maybe also visit one of the sirens shown in virtual hunt above to check up on status, as some seemed in a bit too good of a condition to be untended(That sterling however is most likely just painted and tended as historical artifact).

[Railfan99]

Orlando probably did and still does maybe because of Universal Studios and attractions. But none that I know of, I went to Orlando about a week ago and did not see any sirens.

I don't know of ANY active siren in Orlando to be honest. You would think they would have a lot sirens because of places like Disney, but I don't see any. Oviedo and Winter Park have sirens though.

[Railfan99]

Have you talked with Adam Pollak? He has a list of pretty much every siren ever installed in Florida (of which there were many, but many were removed in the late 80s and early 90s). He also has quite a large collection at his house in Loxahatchee.

Do you have a link to this list? I would love to see it!!! :vortex: :TBolt:

[Thundercode]

Honestly forgot all about this thread until someone bumped the other day(whoops). So gonna do a larger post to make up for. I have 2 more "discovered" siren locations, Melrose City fire department has a STH-10 as of 2011 streetview and appears to still be there on bird's eye https://www.google.com/maps/place/Melro ... 9618?hl=en , and Keystone Heights VFD had a model 5, however sometime bewteen the 2011 and 2015 streetview it was removed from the pole and the pole itself was shortened for some reason. We can only hope it is in storage or fell into the hands of a collector, though not very likely unfortunately. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Keyst ... 4892?hl=en

On Another note, since this was last thing I mentioned previously, the Crystal River system seems fine and should still be testing every Friday at noon like always until the reactor is 100% decommissioned.

On yet more notes, Going by an earlier post out of boredom on google maps, I decided to search for the Crescent City 2001, any clue as to where it is located? Also is there any word on the Hawthorne screamer after its apparent vine removal and antenna install?

Oh and somehow never mentioned this, but I read an article a while back about a place called Keaton Beach installing a a Whelen after a storm caught many people off guard and ended up killing a few. You can see said Whelen here. I also presume this whelen is still active as is quite new obviously. https://www.google.com/maps/search/Fire ... 6656?hl=en

@Railfan99 Didn't know Winter Park had any sirens, but Oviedo's system is quite common knowledge at this point, except I only found the 2001 located at friendship park.


Thought this post would be a good way to kick off 2017!

[Fletch]

I'd like to get the list of locations of any CD/fire sirens that were used during the Cold War era in the Tampa Bay area.

The fire station closest to where I grew up in Pinellas County I know had a siren, I think an XT22, but it was long gone by the mid 90s.