Living near a fire house/department (Smithtown/Hauppauge) (how much, houses)

[The Shaman]

Hey everyone!

Anybody have experience living near a small fire house/department? I'm looking at houses in the Smithtown/Hauppauge area, and some have been very close to a fire house. I'm wondering if there are ordinances or rules for when they can run the sirens, how much noise they can make, etc.

Of course, some benefits include always having trained personnel around for emergencies!

I don't expect a fire house to be making much noise most of the time, but I'm still curious if anyone has any thoughts or insight. Noise is an issue for me and my wife while looking for our first home, and other than ASSUMING the fire house may be loud at times... the neighborhoods all seem very quiet and pleasant.

[okellies]

We live close to a firehouse. There are sirens that go off, but some firehouses don't have the loud siren system (ours does). No ordinances that I'm aware of. I would say the siren goes off 2-3 times a week, some weeks I didn't hear any. And it always seems to happen when we have people over lol.

One benefit we've had is our road is always cleared in the snow. We had at least 4-5 guys going up and down the block in the span of 1-2 hours.

Sometimes the firehouse will have an event and people will park in the street in front of the house, but that's not a big deal and only happens when there is an event.

[ovi8]

I have asked before about the sirens - it's mounted outside the building toward the street. It's an antiquated system that they apparently insist on keeping. A cordial email to the FD asking about its purpose didn't get a response and nobody really talks about it. We live a half mile away and there's no reason why we need to hear it too. If they're calling in anyone who doesn't have their pager, it won't reach the entire town anyway, so why do it? When sitting in our backyard enjoying company like yesterday, the siren is loud enough even many blocks away that it interrupts conversation. No getting around it and it goes off anywhere from 3-6 times a day. It's not a deal-breaker for me, but if a potential buyer experiences that while looking at your house, they will likely run away fast.

Oh and if you have a newborn/toddler who needs their nap, it will easily be a problem. Getting them down isn't easy to begin with.

Really though, I would like to hear the reason they are still used.