Siren System of Place County

This article lists all siren systems that were present in Place County, GA.

Civil Defense System
The Place County civil defense system is unusual in that its origins trace back to 1960, with the purchase of no less than 4 sirens, mostly SD-10’s, along with a Model 2. One of these survived until 2016, with one finding a second life in the town of Oxford, GA as a storm siren.

In 1985, the city began to remove its sirens, starting with the SD-10’s in Midtown, with most sirens being removed by 1989. Some were sold off, with most of the SD-10s going to Cobb County, and one going to Oxford in Newton County. The fates of the remaining units (aside from the SD-10 which, for whatever reason, was never removed until the building it sat on was levelled) are unknown.

Some sirens still remained in place, active (with some changes, perhaps triggered by an incident in 1980 in which a rodent chewing on a cable at the county Office of Civil Defense building - now the sheriff's office - tripped the landline activation relay, causing the sirens to go off for approximately an hour) until 1990, when the sirens were taken down and dismantled.

In the 1990’s and early 2000’s, the system was upgraded and expanded with the purchase of three WPS-2810’s. Four years later, these were supplemented with 2001-SRNB’s, and it was also around this time that Place purchased a WPS-4008. Sometime in the 1960s, an SD-10 was installed atop the Aarons building in Buckhead; this survived until 2016. Years later, in 2012 and 2017, the city bought a mix of electronic and electromechanical sirens into it’s system.

The civil defence system was tested every Friday at 12:00 in one minute of alert. They were activated from this building, Renaissance Lofts (back in the day the Atlanta PD headquarters), via landline telephone controls.

As an addendum, there are persistent, though unverified, reports that the SD-10 atop the Russell Federal Building sounded during the 2008 Midtown tornado event when it was not refurbished until 2011, - a curious postscript to a long history.

Here are some of the known locations, sorted by model. All have been removed, except where noted:

SD-10:

* Holly Road & Andrews Street (siren is still extant)

* Fire Station 29 (siren now resides in Oxford, Georgia)

* Fire Station 27

* Russell Federal Building (controls are left)

Model 2:

* Mt. Vernon Church (pole remains)

Siren #01:

Type: SD-10

Installed: 1960?

Status: Abandoned.

Siren #02:

Type: SD-10

Installed: 1960?

Status: Controls remain.

Siren #03:

Type: SD-10

Installed: 1970?

Status: Relocated to Oxford, GA. Active there.

Siren #04:

Type: Model 2

Installed: 1970?

Status: Removed, sold for scrap. Pole remains.

== 2000’s System == Siren #05:

Type: WPS-2810

Installed: 1999

Status: Removed in 2004, sold to Columbus, GA.

Siren #06:

Type: WPS-2810

Installed: 1999

Status: Removed in 2004, sold to Columbus, GA.

Siren #07:

Type: WPS-2810

Installed: 2000

Status: Removed in 2004, sold to Columbus, GA.

Siren #08:

Type: 2001-SRNB

Installed: 2003

Status: Active, but sick.

Siren #09:

Type: 2001-SRNB

Installed: 2003

Status: Active.

Siren #10:

Type: WPS-4008

Installed: Originally installed in 1996, but relocated to Place County in 2003.

Status: Active.

“Current” System
Siren #11:

Type: 2T22A

Installed: Originally installed sometime in the 1970s, but relocated to Place in 2012.

Status: Active

Siren #12:

Type: T-135

Installed: 2012

Status: Active.

Siren #13:

Type: T-135

Installed: 2012

Status: Active.

Siren #14:

Type: 2001-130

Installed: 2017

Status: Removed in favor of a WPS-2910. Relocated to Harwood. Active there.

Siren #14:

Type: WPS-2910

Installed: 2017

Status: Active.

Siren #15:

Type: WPS-2910

Installed: 2017

Status: Active.

Siren #16:

Type: WPS-2910

Installed: Originally installed in 1980, but relocated to Place County in 2017.

Status: Active.

Plant Dugway System -

Siren #17:

Type: Mobil Directo

Installed: Originally installed in 1950, but was taken down and refurbished in 2019.

Status: Active.

Siren #18:

Type: WPS-2910

Installed: 2018

Status: Active.

Siren #19:

Type: WPS-2910

Installed: 2018

Status: Active.

Siren #20:

Type: WPS-2910

Installed: 2018

Status: Active.

Siren #21:

Type: WPS-2910

Installed: 2018

Status: Active.

== Harwood System == Siren #22:

Type: 2001-130

Installed: 2018

Status: Active.

Siren #23:

Type: 7v8-B

Installed: 2018

Status: Active, but not tested. Used as a backup for the 2001-130.