Youngwood Fire Chief Lloyd Crago tells a local television station that someone started shutting off the electric power to the 70-year-old siren, which wails about two minutes to summon volunteer firefighters in this town about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh. When fire crews locked up the power switch, the vandals switched to cutting the phone wires which silenced the siren over the weekend.
Crago says the siren remains necessary because not all firefighters have cell phones or pagers.
Crago says anyone annoyed by the siren would certainly be thankful for it if their house was on fire.
