The Siren Board

... In DeKalb county, GA that is.

As you may or may not know, DeKalb county installed a system of 28 Thunderbolts in 1962, and removed them all and sold them to Cobb County in 1989. At these old siren locations, there usually stands a pole with a standpipe, But, as I was surfing through the county, I happened to stumble upon what I think is the last thunderbolt in DeKalb. I was looking at the Oak Grove school (early 50's school, I believe), and happened to notice a yellow thing in the background from the angle I was looking at. At first, I thought it was my eyes playing games with me, but when I got closer, I figured out that it is a Thunderbolt. Today, I got the chance to see the old thing first hand.


Head


Where the Blower was


Looking up the pole


The base of the pole seems to make up part of a nature trail.


What's left of the whole setup

Enjoy!

it is not unheard of for a town to take a unit out of service & forget, most times its simply is overlooked & is eventually taken apart over the years.
We had a similar town forget it had a siren & was discovered by a company (not us) when they went to remove some trees. its kinda funny when the city says there's no siren at that location but lo & behold there she is.

Cool! Looks like they took the blower, but left the head and the pole do to power line complications.

If it is indeed part of the old Dekalb system, funny they forgot the head on this one when they took all the other ones.

Andys Live WX wrote:If it is indeed part of the old Dekalb system, funny they forgot the head on this one when they took all the other ones.

It is part of DeKalb's old system. DeKalb Purchased 28 Thunderbolts in 1962, and Installed them between '62 and '63. In 1989, They decommissioned them and removed them, and evidently forgot about that one. They sold off the removed ones to Cobb County. All 6 Tbolts currently in Cobb are Ex-DeKalb sirens, as a matter of fact.

I believe the 2 Tbolts in Smyrna's system were from DeKalb. Smyrna's system is independent of Cobb.

These sirens were installed at Smyrna FS#4 on S. Cobb Dr.(about a mi.N of 285) and at the Boral Brick Company off Oakdale Rd.

Both are now silent; the FS#4 siren has a Vortex standing next to it.