The 'fire motor siren' was discovered in Gyeonggi Province, still in its original installation state from over 60 years ago.
On the 26th, the Gyeonggi Provincial Fire and Disaster Headquarters announced that they found a fire motor siren with large horns attached on the rooftop of the old Jeongok Volunteer Fire Brigade building located in Jeongok-eup, Yeoncheon-gun.
This is the first time a fire motor siren, which was believed to have almost disappeared in the Gyeonggi area, has been found in the exact condition as it was installed over 60 years ago.
After the Jeongok Volunteer Fire Brigade moved to a new building and stopped using the siren, even local residents were reportedly unaware of its existence and purpose.
The fire motor siren was an acoustic warning device used to summon the fire brigade and alert residents in case of fire or large-scale disasters. Currently, electronic civil defense warning sirens are used. The operation of sound-based fire alarms originated in the early Joseon period, when watchmen at the bell pavilion would ring a bell to alert people of a fire.
Later, with the invention of the motor siren, fire sirens began to be installed nationwide at fire stations or police stations from the early 1900s and were used until the transition to electronic sirens. In some regions, motor sirens were used for fire alarms until the 1980s. The sirens that sounded at noon until the 1970s were also motor sirens.
The motor siren discovered this time has three large horns attached and is considered the only model of its kind in Korea based on current investigations. A similar type of siren exists at the 119 Safety Center of Seocheon Fire Station in Chungnam. Until now, it was known that there was only one horn-attached motor siren in Korea, located in Seocheon-eup, but with this discovery, the number of this type has increased to two.
The Jeongok-eup motor siren is evaluated to have higher value because it is larger and has a different horn attachment style compared to the Chungnam Seocheon motor siren.
Jo Seon-ho, head of the Provincial Fire and Disaster Headquarters, explained, "In 2020, we participated in a fire relic cataloging survey project led by the Cultural Heritage Administration and conducted a full survey of fire sirens in the Chungnam region. Currently, about 15 fire sirens remain in Chungnam, the most in the country, but the siren discovered in Yeoncheon is rare enough to be called unique in its manufacturing style and is characterized by its large size."
Meanwhile, Yeoncheon-gun and Yeoncheon Fire Station are considering plans to utilize the Jeongok Volunteer Fire Brigade building and motor siren, built in the late 1960s, as a cultural space where people can learn about the history and activities of the volunteer fire brigade at that time, turning it into a tourism product and even pursuing cultural heritage registration.
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