Friday, October 10, 2025

V.O.L. Gets a New Fire Siren – October 1955

One of the things that I like about living in the east end of Vermilion is the daily six o'clock test of the siren at the Vermilion Fire Dept. Station No. 2 in the Vermilion-on-the-Lake neighborhood. Once you get past the mistaken idea that it is some sort of sinister "get out of town" warning to minorities, you accept it as a charming aspect of living in a small town. And it's kind of handy sometimes when you lose track of the time in the early evening and you're not staring at your phone, TV or computer.

And above you see the front page of the October 3, 1955 Lorain Journal with a photo of what I believe is the current siren being installed. It sure looks like it.


Elsewhere on that not-so-newsworthy front page: the Lorain County Kennel Club's annual all-breed puppy and obedience sanctioned match; a coal burning tug causes soot to fall on Lorain east side homes; the Lorain Port List; and some advice from a 'nationally prominent home economist" about successful meat cookery, including the suggestion that "Meat should never be seared!"
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 10, 2025 at 9:18 AM

    Unfortunately, you won't be hearing that siren anymore. It is currently broken and the city decided not to repair it. I can't recall whether it was due to the cost or the lack of parts available. Another tradition gone with the wind.

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    1. Dan BradyOctober 10, 2025 at 4:14 PM

      Thanks for the information. As I was prepping this post, I thought to myself that I hadn't heard it for a while and wondered if it was because my windows have been closed with the A/C on most of the summer. That's really disappointing!

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  2. Don HiltonOctober 10, 2025 at 1:34 PM

    We only get a siren during a monthly test or a bad storm's a'rollin' in.

    The article about the coal smoke made me laugh. A couple decades earlier and everyone was burning it for heat!

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  3. Mike KozlowskiOctober 10, 2025 at 5:20 PM

    That's not a siren.

    THIS is a siren.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Air-Raid_Siren

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    1. AnonymousOctober 11, 2025 at 9:27 PM

      Yes.The famous Hemi powered sirens of the cold war.Gives a new meaning to that old phrase "That thing got a Hemi".

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