The Village of East Williston is considering turning off the fire sirens at night for many calls.
Patrick Theodore, chief of the department, presented the idea of the trial program to the Board of Trustees at Monday’s meeting.
The trial program would not apply to calls for working fires, Theodore said. Alarms would only be silenced for calls such as automatic alarms, gas leaks and investigations of alarm soundings. If a dispatcher feels it is a legitimate fire, the sirens will immediately sound, Theodore said.
The decision to turn the alarms off comes after a series of resident complaints about the alarms going off at night, Theodore said. However, Trustee James Iannone said last month was an anomaly with more calls than usual since the East Williston Fire Department was responding to calls in Mineola while the neighboring department was down a truck.
Several board members and residents voiced complaints about the trial program.
“Don’t you think this is starting a precedent?” one resident said. “I understand the alarm goes off, but that’s how we get to the fire. We get a call based on the fire alarm.”
If the trial program is put in place, pagers will still be used to notify department members about calls, Theodore said.
Deputy Mayor Bonnie Parente, who grew up by a firehouse and lives close to it now, said she did not give a lot of credence to the complaints.
“When the siren goes off the first thing I think of is ‘oh my god these poor guys have to get out of bed,’ not ‘oh damn it woke me up,’” Parente said. “But that said I respect that you are the professionals and you thought about this.”
Other fire departments including Mineola, Westbury and Albertson, do not use their alarms at night. Theodore said. Elmont, “a very busy department,” doesn’t use its sirens at all, according to Theodore.
If the department does begin the program, Theodore said it would not affect manpower or response.
“If I felt that this was in any way going to jeopardize anyone in the community or response I would not even consider it,” Theodore said.
Mayor David Tanner said village officials will discuss it further among themselves and with the department and commissioner before deciding whether to move forward with the trial program.
