POCOMOKE CITY, Md. -- Worcester County recently installed an emergency siren at the Pocomoke Volunteer Fire Company's headquarters. The fire company is thrilled to have a new and very loud tool at their disposal.
If the lights are flashing and the firetrucks are moving out of the station, it means people in Pocomoke will hear the siren. Three long, back to back to back blasts, to be specific.
"This is a huge thing for us because this system requires no intervention by the firefighters, it will activate no matter what, it's very reliable," said Dicky Gladding.
Gladding, Pocomoke Volunteer Fire Company's Chief, said the sirens will also be helpful for letting people know when fire equipment will be heading out onto the roads.
"For the citizens, for their safety as well as ours, it's a huge plus," said Gladding.
The town used to have four emergency sirens, which dated back to the World War II era. Jerry Barbierri, the Public Information Officer for Pocomoke's Volunteer Fire Company, said Father Time and a lack of available parts slowly put the sirens out of commission.
"One by one, each of them just stopped working, they burned out and we couldn't replace them," said Barbierri. "Eventually we got down to one and that was the most recent that burned out about a year ago."
To fix the problem Worcester County added Pocomoke to their list of towns that needed an upgrade.
"They[Worcester County] took on the task of starting to replace them across the county, so we're the second or third fire company that got the upgrades," said Barbierri. "We had it installed a few weeks ago and it became active yesterday."
If you are in Pocomoke and you hear three sirens in a row, it means the fire department is on their way to a fire or other emergency they would normally handle, like a car crash. If you hear one, long and extended siren it means there is a weather emergency, like a hurricane or tornado.
The long-term goal is to have three sirens throughout Pocomoke. Exact locations for the additional sirens is not set in stone, but the idea is to have one downtown near the library and another by the Newtown Recreational Center.