North Canterbury town to keep its fire siren after community protest

October 29, 2020

The alarm in Oxford, Canterbury was set to be only used as a back-up.

A North Canterbury fire siren will keep sounding at night after residents in Oxford stepped in to save it from modern technology.

The alarm was set to be used only as a backup as volunteer fire brigades upgrade their alert systems, but thanks to an overwhelming local campaign, it has been saved.

“I actually cried, because I was so emotional about it, yeah, to think that something that means so much to this town and we got it back,” Shona Kidd said.

In many towns around the country, Fire and Emergency New Zealand has moved to a modern system which initially favours pager and text technology to avoid using their siren after 10pm where they can.

The alarm would only sound as a backup, if no one responds within three minutes.

“This is pretty rare that we have a community wanting their siren on at night, normally we get lots of complaints about the siren,” Canterbury Fire Area commander Dave Berry said.

After a trial in Oxford, locals demanded to be disturbed, saying the cell phone reception can't be relied on.

“You have to have it, technology isn't always 100 per cent in some places,” Kidd said.

Their petition gained 950 signatures - half the town's population.

“Our community felt that was the level of cover that they were happy with, and would like to see,” Waimakariri District Mayor Dan Gordon said.

Fire and Emergency say their trials prove the modern method is safe.

“There has been no impact, with the siren being silenced for those three minutes, and it hasn't reduced response time or anything like that,” Berry said.

“It's a bit of a rare occasion, but we will leave the siren going.”

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