Bucks County residents debate decommissioning fire siren above Langhorne-Middletown Fire Company

LANGHORNE, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- The sound of a fire siren that stands tall above the Langhorne-Middletown Fire Company comes up in debate every few years.

It's been in service for decades, but a petition is making its way around town to decommission it.

"I circulated the petition between different business owners around here," explained Langhorne Borough Councilman Scott Haldeman. "I'm part of the community, I'm bothered by it, many business owners, employees, and residents are bothered by it."

The fire department says the siren has several purposes. It alerts their firefighters, and it alerts residents that crews will be coming and going quickly from the station.

"The community is protected by a 100% volunteer fire company, so, we're their neighbors. When my fire pager goes off, when the siren blows, we stop our lives and become the professional firefighters of this community," explained Frank Farry, the fire chief of the Langhorne-Middletown Fire Company.

The department argues it should keep the siren because pagers or cellphones don't always go off in dead zones.

"There's a luncheonette two blocks away and one of our members was there having breakfast, his pager never activated, but he heard the siren and he was the only driver to show up that day," said Farry.

Haldeman says he thinks this is a want from the department, not a need.

"The fire department says they need it. I disagree. I'm confronting them on the subject," he said.

Farry argues there are discrepancies in the petition that Haldeman is passing around the community.

"'We keep the siren on for tradition,' that's 100% not true and he knows that. But he's trying to rally people that are bothered by the siren to be against the fire department," Farry said.

Back in January, members of the fire department voted unanimously to keep the siren.

The President of the Langhorne Borough Council, Paul Murdock, may not be a fan of the sound, but he's putting his trust in the department.

"It is a loud sound, it is jarring. It wakes me up, but I know somebody is probably having the worst day of their life, so I roll over and go back to sleep knowing our men and women of the fire company are taking care of the public at large," said Murdock.

Murdock says it wasn't a controversy until January when Haldeman brought it up.

"He brought this back up, so the fire company came in and explained their reasoning. At this point, I'm inclined to believe our first responders before I think I know what's best for them. There hasn't been anybody to voice displeasure about the siren, if anything, there has been people in support. Until a large public outcry, it's a non-issue," explained Murdock.

Action News spoke with residents and got mixed reactions from people depending on how close they live and work to the station.

Employees at businesses along the street of the fire company are bothered by the loudness of it.

"It's a bother to everybody. I can hear it, I grew up in Parkland three miles away, you can hear it from there. We need it, but should it be so loud?" questioned Ian Schwartz, who lives a few houses down from the department.

Others who have lived in the area for years acknowledge it and are used to it by now.

"I understand their usage, it's good other people can hear, so they know fire is in the area," said Dennis Freedman of Langhorne.