The Siren Board

Note:Please let me know if this has been posted before. I used the search tool and couldn't find a thread showing stories of accidental activations (at least of people discussing more than one accident).

This is just to share and discuss accidental activations you know of or that you have experienced.

The only accidental activation I experienced was about 6 years ago, and a car allegedly hit a power pole that switched the entire system on and off for about 5-10 minutes. It made the neighborhood T22s sound in a fast wail.

In Hamilton County, I only remember that happening 2 times in 2006.

1. One night in early 2006, I remember I was walking the dog with my dad, and then, we hear the sirens sound in attack! While out, we weren't sure what would've been going on since tornadoes don't happen in cold weather, so we checked the TV when we got home, and it said a janitor set them off!

2. It was close to the end of the school day on December 20, and the Thunderbolt on top of the elementary school I went to went off around 3pm! It was only about 1 minute or so, but I never heard why it activated. It was the 3rd Wednesday, and Hamilton County used to test on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday for a few years, so my teacher was assuming it was just a test. But it wasn't noon! It was earlier that year Hamilton County was testing on the 1st Wednesday only again.

I remember a few years back, I was still in St. Louis (County). It was about 7a and I was about to start my day, when the classic old-Whelen wind-up graced my ears. It was bright, crisp, and sunny, and not a cloud in the sky. I couldn't figure out what was going on; surely someone had made an error. The news reported later that a dispatcher-in-training "made a mistake" and set off the entire county's system erroneously.

Can you imagine being that poor chap after doing that?

Just in the past month or so I'v been hearing whelen's in the distance winding up then just cutting off, Its not at any particular time either. I called the fire department and they said they heard them to but it wasn't Mustangs sirens.

The network of Klaxon CS8 sirens used to warn of escape from Broadmoor (an asylum for the criminally insane) are activated via telephone line. It has been known for engineers to accidentally activate the sirens when servicing the phone lines.

Regards,
Jerry.

About 7 years ago when I was a garbageman, I was picking up out in the country around 6 AM when I could swear I was hearing a distant siren. Later on in the day I heard on the local radio station that one of Exelon LaSalle Station's Thunderbolts had accidentally activated. When I heard it I was about 4 miles away from it, there is a house right next to it and I bet they had a heck of a wake up that morning. I never found out what set it off and it has since been replaced with a T-135 AC/DC.

Also about 20 years ago during a thunderstorm, a friend and I drove by the T-bolt north of town and it was rotating but not sounding. I heard later that it had been struck by lightning. It was removed a couple weeks ago, but the pole and service are still there, so I'm assuming there will be a T-135 there soon.

I recall a time back in the late 70s when the Smyrna, GA system activated about 5 AM one morning.

The system consisted of STH-10s. When I lived in Smyrna I could hear one of the sirens during the Saturday tests easily; even with my windows closed.

One morning the sirens sounded in Attack mode..and I'm sure scared a lot of people! I turned on the TV, but there was no news of a disaster. When I called the police station(whose siren I was hearing and where the EM office was located), I was told they had no idea what was happening! Nobody there had pushed the button. In fact, they were trying to reach the EM director at the moment.

I learned later that day that siren activation was result of water seeping into the leased landlines which controlled the sirens. It caused a short which tripped a relay and activated the sirens! We'd had several days of rain previous to that incident, so maybe that's how the water got into the lines.

One can only imagine being awakened early in the morning by the town's sirens sound Attack!

I remember one incident when I lived in Hamilton,Ohio (Butler County). The Thunderbolt on top of Monroe Elementary roared to life at about 2 am and ran for about 20 minutes. Some kids had broke in to the school and broke the lock off of the box and activated the T-bolt. This was back in 86 and we were still in the cold war era. There was mass confusion obviously. Somehow they must have activated it with the manual switches

A friend of mine had a STH-10 at the end of his driveway one morning around 7-8 am, it goes into attack mode (keep in mind he has a 2nd floor bedroom too ), never heard why it sounded.

a year later, not quite to the day but within a week or so of being a year..

It sounds again, In attack mode, again, I heard it at my house (about a mile away with the windows closed, but I was next to the bathroom window taking my morning leak when I heard it)
Slightly annoyed, my friend prays the following to God, "God, if it's telling the truth, I'll see you in 5 minutes, otherwise I'm going back to sleep." and that is what he did, I don't know how he slept with that thing blasting, but he said he did.

The STH-10 has since been taken down... and right next to where it stood now stands a 2001-SRNB.

The city of Milwaukee WI old Siren system was mostly Model 2's And every so often one would go off by it self for no reason at all. They were set off by Telephone lines. When you called they would tell you that they were trying to contact it meaning they were trying to dial it down on the Western Electric Dial Up system or it that did not work a DPW Electrician was sent out to pull the fuses.

One time in the early 70's the whole system went off for a hr and they could not get it dialed down.