Mill Valley To Test New Emergency Sirens

MILL VALLEY, CA – People in Mill Valley may hear sirens Thursday. Don't panic! It's only a test.

A new emergency siren will be tested. The device on Vasco Court is the first of several new long-range sirens the Mill Valley Fire Department will test in the coming weeks.

All five of the city's emergency sirens were upgraded this month with the new devices. The sirens, known as LRADs or long-range acoustic devices, project both siren and voice recordings to alert and inform community members during large-scale disasters. The sirens are the first land-based LRAD system in Marin County.

The Mill Valley City Council authorized the purchase of the LRAD system in January 2019, which cost an estimated $418,000.

"We believe that the purchase and installation of LRAD goes a long way to improve the resiliency and redundancy of our communication systems," Mill Valley Fire Chief Tom Welch said. "LRAD systems are highly effective in communicating warnings, instructions, and notifications throughout incident sites and over vast areas during life-threatening events."