Malfunctioning Siren Sounds False Alarm

— A malfunctioning tornado siren woke some Rogers residents early Wednesday.

The siren behind Westside Elementary School, near 23rd Street and Pine Street, went off five times between 4:20 a.m. and 5 a.m., said Keith Foster, public information officer for Rogers police. The siren went off on its own, Foster said

The Rogers dispatch center was “flooded” with calls, he said.

A siren activation system is housed in the dispatch center at the Rogers Police Department, but dispatchers did not activate the siren, nor did activation show on the operation panel there, Foster said.

The only siren with a confirmed problem is the one near Westside, Foster said.

“There may have been others, but we don't know for sure,” Foster said.

Dispatchers shut down the radio system that activates the siren, and Street Department workers shut down power to the siren to keep it from going off. At first, the sounding siren was assumed to be the result of an electronic problem, but no one from the city can confirm that as siren maintenance is performed by an outside company. Those technicians will inspect and repair the broken siren, Foster said.

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