The City of Hot Springs has just completed installation of two additional emergency warning sirens to the city’s current seven-siren system and will begin testing them tomorrow, Wednesday, August 26. Residents will hear Westminster chimes at noon from one siren located at the intersection of Lakeshore and Panama and the other siren located at the intersection of Molly Springs Road and Airport Road. Testing will continue each Wednesday at noon.
The city is in the process of implementing a five-year plan to equip the city with emergency warning sirens and hopes to install two sirens each year until the entire city is covered. The sirens now cover all of downtown, the Central Avenue corridor to Cornerstone Marketplace, and, with the addition of the two new sirens, the city’s west side.
Thus far the system consists of 9 omnidirectional sirens mounted on 55-foot poles and strategically placed around the city. The sirens are both voice and tone capable and will be used primarily to warn people outdoors of impending weather threats like floods and tornadoes or for other emergencies like hazardous chemical spills.
The control center for the system is housed and manned at the Central Fire Station. The system is an extremely useful tool for the city’s emergency management command center as it continues to enhance the city’s abilities to manage possible disasters. The system also has the ability to be triggered remotely by fire officials as the need arises.
Sirens are automatically triggered based on National Weather Service warnings and can be programmed to automatically launch should the city fall within the weather map polygons issued by the National Weather Service.