Back in the days before modern communication equipment, the best way to alert Warren residents of danger in town was via a large siren atop town hall. That siren blared out signals for fires, storms and other emergencies, alerting people from Touisset to Water Street what was going on. That siren has long since gone quiet but next Thursday, the town will install two modern equivalents atop town hall and in Touisset.
Paid for by a $92,000 grant from the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency, workers are scheduled Thursday to lift a large speaker array atop town hall with a large crane. Another will be raised atop a 40-foot pole behind the Warren Fire Department’s Station 6 in Touisset. Computer equipment that controls both has already been installed.
“Different sirens will represent different situations,” said Warren’s grant writer/projet manager Bob Rulli, who is helping the town organize the system’s delivery and installation.
“If there’s an evacuation notice, that’ll be one sound,”he said. “If the fire chief had a need to call in multiple responders, that would be another signal.”
Though the sirens will be installed Thursday, laying the groundwork for them has been in the works for months. Mr. Rulli and Fire Chief James Sousa, who is also the town’s director of emergency management, have been overseeing the installation of computer equipment in town hall and elsewhere that control the sirens. Equipment will also allow for direct communication with first responders across town via cell phones and computers.
Since there are multiple tones for different scenarios, Mr. Rulli said there will be a learning curve involved, not just for those who need to respond to emergencies, but for ordinary residents who hear the tones across town.
“There will have to be some education” for those who don’t know what they mean, Mr. Rulli said. That will be especially important in the coming weeks as the system is tested.
If all goes as planned, Mr. Rulli said, the system should be more or less operational by the end of the day Thursday. Residents will not be able to see the apparatus once it’s up, as it will be placed on a flat section of roof at the rear of town hall.

Weathervane
The apparatus will be lifted by a large crane set up in the parking lot just north of town hall. While they are at it, workers plan to use the opportunity to re-install the town hall’s historic copper weathervane, which was removed several years ago for repairs. The vane is now at town hall and will be placed atop the roof while the other work is underway, Mr. Rulli said.