It’s been years since the community could set its clocks by the noon whistle when the fire department would test its warning siren. The hard-wired system from the Public Safety Building failed long ago, but the siren is coming back, with a new radio controller.

“The Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department has completed upgrades to the community warning siren located at the corner of Front Street and Case Avenue,” and will start testing it next week at noon Monday through Friday every week, Fire Chief Jordan Buness said in a statement on June 18.

The upgraded radio-controlled system will provide “improved reliability, remote activation capabilities and automated testing functions,” Buness said.

Residents will hear the siren “for approximately six seconds … intended to verify that the warning system remains operational and ready for emergency use,” Buness said. “Residents should not take any action when hearing the scheduled noon test signal.”

The noon siren will be controlled by a time-clock.

The chief said last week he wanted to give residents plenty of notice before starting the daily tests next week.

As part of the upgrade, Buness said, a tsunami alert signal has been added to the system, consisting of a “continuous steady siren lasting three minutes” which may be activated during tsunami warnings or evacuation notifications issued by emergency management authorities.

Consistent with its historical use, the siren will alert fire department volunteers and reserve members to confirmed structure fires, he said. The fire alert will be a repeating 12-second-on, 12-second-off siren pattern lasting approximately two minutes.

“While no single notification method reaches everyone, the community siren remains an important part of Wrangell’s layered emergency warning system and helps ensure timely notification during significant emergencies,” Buness said.

“The siren is intended to complement, not replace, existing emergency alerting methods and provides an additional means of notifying both responders and the public when rapid action may be required.”