'Motor-Operated Siren' Firefighting Artifact from the 1950s to Be Exhibited

Gapyeong Fire Station donated a motor-driven fire siren to the Gyeonggi-do National Safety Experience Center, where it will be permanently exhibited.

A motor-type 'fire siren' used in the 1950s will be on permanent display.

The Gyeonggi-do Fire and Disaster Headquarters announced on the 23rd that one motor-type fire siren, which was used from the 1950s to the 1990s in the Gapyeong-eup area to alert fires and other disasters or for civil defense alarms, will be permanently exhibited at the Gyeonggi-do National Safety Experience Center located in Osan.

This siren was installed on the rooftop of the Gapyeong-eup Volunteer Fire Brigade building from the 1950s and was used until January 1993, before the opening of the Gapyeong Fire Substation. After the opening of the Gapyeong Fire Station in February 2008, it was stored at the fire station.

The original height of the steel tower on which the siren was installed was 7 meters, but due to difficulties in indoor storage, the lower part was removed, and now only 2.6 meters remain.

The motor-type fire siren was introduced in the 1920s and was installed in every volunteer fire brigade at the town and township level nationwide. However, it has almost disappeared in large urban areas and is known to remain only in some rural areas such as Chungnam and Jeonbuk.

Only about two fire sirens remain in the province, including the one for this exhibition.

The siren was very useful in times when communication systems were not as developed as they are now. It was used as an alarm not only for disasters such as fires and floods but also for noon notifications and air raid warnings.

In the representative novel "Wings" by Yi Sang, published in 1936, there is a phrase, "At this time, the noon siren sounded 'tu-'," which refers to the sound of the fire siren that sounded every noon.

However, motor sirens were gradually replaced in the late 1970s as electronic sirens were distributed in urban areas.

The provincial Fire and Disaster Headquarters will install an experiential fire siren tower from September so visitors can hear the actual motor siren sound. Except for Mondays, which are closed days, anyone can visit the Gyeonggi-do National Safety Experience Center to freely view the oldest wooden manual pump and fire siren in Korea.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.