HISTORIC RESOURCE
Air raid siren gets city protection
Medicine Hat’s air raid siren, a leftover sentinel of the Cold War perched atop Division Avenue Hill, may never sound again, though it will be preserved by city order.
And local historians are seeking to rebuild a reasonable substitute from the same era.
City council this week voted to designate as a Municipal Historic Resource the 55-yearold siren that sits atop a 15-metre-tall metal pole.
Such protection has been discussed for several years by the city’s Heritage Resource Committee.
During the long process, city councillors often inquired about whether it still worked or could be turned on as part of celebrations, festivals, or just for curiosity’s sake.
Earl Morris, a committee member who headed the preservation project, said it’s unlikely the large siren could ever be restored to working order.
However, two smaller sirens removed years ago are now slated to be restored and returned to the city.
“There are people who are not old enough to remember the sirens and it gives them an opportunity to learn, and those of us who are old enough should remember,” he told the News.
Morris, a retired Alberta Government Telephone employee, dealt often with the warning system, which was operated remotely by the military via the telephone lines. The electrical system and power supply to the site were tested fairly often until the early 1970s, he said, though with the siren’s mechanism disengaged, and the actual siren rarely turned on.
Morris says many people confuse the siren with a curfew alarm used during the 1960s. That was mounted on the old city hall municipal building.
The large siren was erected in 1962 as part of a civil defence plan by Canada’s military. It, along with four smaller units placed around town, were meant to warn residents of impending nuclear attack.
The large steel pole and unit in the laneway between Third and Fourth streets on the southeast side of Division Avenue is the only one that remains.
The two smaller air-raid sirens will be sent to the Canadian Civil Defence Museum in Edmonton, it was announced this week.
Eventually, signage at that site will describe the history. Morris and several members of the committee are drawing up a proposal to have a smaller siren mounted at a lower height closer to the sidewalk.
If suitable power could be brought to the site, the smaller unit could produce a similar, albeit less noisy, alarm.
The large siren would be capable of producing 130 decibels of sound — an amount of sound equal to a modern jet with afterburner taking off at distance of 50 feet away.
The smaller, less-noisy units produce a sound similar to mid-20th century fire truck, he said, while the large one creates the long wail that people typically associate with an air raid.
“It’s basically a copy of ones used during the Second World War, with two rotors that turn to make the (drone),” said Morris.
“For anyone who lived during that time the Battle of Britain, they would certainly be cringing.”
Morris has written extensively about the sirens on his website (www.medicinehat.net).