FedTB wrote:I was at that fire station in October 1996. I'm a firefighter-paramedic in the St. Louis area and myself and several other firefighters from my area flew down to Houston for some hazmat training as well as some firefighting tactics training. One of our stops was at Station 22 because that's where the Houston Fire Department's hazmat vehicles and hazmat-trained firefighters are based at. I remember seeing the T-Bolt there, and I can tell you that it was in better shape 15 years ago; not nearly as rusty. But I didn't know that it was deactivated even before then.
Yes, the city pulled the plug on the system in 1992 and has recently been removing the few that remain. As of now the one I posted is the only one left that I know of. Usually when a station gets renovated they take the old siren down during that process. As was the case with the siren that was at Red Elementary School it was just set on the side of the street for trash pickup when it was taken down. After some digging I found this article about the deactivation of the entire system. Thanks to Silversearchlight for posting this on a previous thread.
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City's air raid sirens will come to screeching halt
RUTH PILLER Staff
FRI 04/24/1992 HOUSTON CHRONICLE, Section A, Page 29, 2 STAR
After 40 years of service, one of the last remnants of the Cold War in Houston is being retired.
At noon today, the air-raid sirens that have sounded each Friday for the past four decades will bellow one last time.
And then city officials will pull the plug.
The sirens, installed in the early 1950s to warn of the perpetually feared nuclear attack from the Soviet Union, cost the city $35,000 to $50,000 annually to maintain. Yet the warning system has been all but obsolete for some time, said Richard Hawkins, the city's emergency management director.
The sirens were installed, Hawkins said, "back when we were keeping B-52s in the air 24 hours a day. We were worried about the Russians."
The Federal Emergency Management Agency once required and helped subsidize emergency warning systems. But today, FEMA neither pays for nor requires those systems.
Since Houston has never faced a nuclear attack from the Soviets, or anyone else, the sirens have never warned Houstonians of anything -- except the arrival of midday each Friday.
"We never use that siren system for anything except to blow it on Fridays and see if it works," Hawkins said.
The 42 sirens in place now are all inside the 610 Loop, having been installed before Houstonians moved to the suburbs. When one of those sirens falls into disrepair, it is virtually impossible to find replacement parts.
City officials at one time had planned to put in a new system. But the replacement of the existing sirens and the installation of 107 new ones -- mainly outside Loop 610 -- would cost the city more than $3.6 million.
The end of the siren system does not leave Houston unprotected. Five systems are already in place to notify people in case of emergencies, and those systems will continue to be used, Hawkins said.
Those systems are a cable override on television systems; emergency broadcast signals on television and radio; a severe-weather warning transmitted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; the Metro traffic system, which has access to more than 30 television and radio systems; and fire and police vehicles, which have public-announcement systems at isolated locations.
Houston's sirens will be junked or, if they work, possibly given to towns and smaller cities, where such a warning system could be effective in some situations, he said.
The siren's last wail will be made without fanfare, Hawkins said.
"We're just going to quietly turn off the power and that is it."
. They possibly could have added those to the existing system before they dissconected them, which would explain all of the Whelen radios on the Thunderbolts including mine. It is dated 7-10-86. 