Cloverdale Fire Department

The Cloverdale Fire Department is on 57 Avenue, just east of 176th Street. When I was growing up in Cloverdale there used to be a baseball park across the street from the firehall. The Cloverdale Shopper's Mall, or what's left of it, was built on the park. The firemen used to have fireworks displays there each Halloween. We could see it from our house up on the hill on 182 Street, but often we went to the park to watch.

Every Monday night at 7pm the firehouse used to practice and tested its siren. They also tested the siren on Sunday morning at 10am. If the siren went off at other times that meant there was a fire or another emergency and the volunteers were being called to the station. We could hear that siren all over town. Even a mile away where we lived that siren was loud and clear. We had a Saint Bernard dog growing up and every time the fire siren sounded she sat down, pointed her snout in the air, and howled.

When pagers came on the scene back in the late 1980's, they were handed out to the firefighters and the pagers were then used to call the firefighters and the siren ceased to be used.

A few years ago Kerry and I were taking the dogs for a walk. The fire siren sounded. Growing up in Cloverdale and hearing it tested twice a week, plus in use for whenever a real fire was happening, I didn't give it a second thought. But Kerry said: "What the hell is that?" I told him it was the fire siren, then I thought about it for a second and said "It's Wednesday night so what are they doing testing it?" It completely went over my head that it had been years since I'd last heard the siren.

If the firefighters were still using that siren it would be going off constantly. Cloverdale has many non-fire emergencies that firefighters respond to. And today firefighters live at the hall and work in shifts.