Residents annoyed with Youngwood's emergency siren have been leaving anonymous threatening messages for the borough fire chief and other officials.
Fire Chief and Council President Lloyd Crago said he got a vulgar email about the siren on Oct. 5 at the fire department. A similar voicemail message was left at the department on Sunday. Crago would not provide details about the threatening messages, but said he has asked the state police to investigate.
Another email, questioning how often the siren blows, was sent via email to the borough building on Oct. 6. Crago said his father, Donald, the fire company president, had a run-in with a resident about the siren on a borough street on Saturday.
“We don't want people threatening us,” the fire chief said.
He defended the use of the siren that alerts firefighters to calls.
“(Westmoreland County) 911 blows it when we have a fire call, not to wake people up in the middle of the night,” Crago said. “We don't want the fire siren to blow, but when it does, it means somebody needs us.”
Youngwood firefighters also are alerted to emergencies by cellphone, but Crago said that system is “not 100 percent” reliable. The siren alerts firefighters who are away from their cellphones, or when cellular service is out — as when a tornado ripped through Hempfield in 2011, he said.