Friday September 15, 6:17
PM
Public Warning
System testing conducted at 12:05pm on Friday
SINGAPORE: Sirens were sounded throughout Singapore for a minute
just past noon, at 12.05pm on Friday.
This was part of an annual exercise by the Singapore Civil Defence
Force to test the people's awareness about its Public Warning
System.
The highly secured activation centre, located at the SCDF
headquarters (at Ubi Avenue 4), is manned round the clock with
tests running every single day to ensure the system runs
smoothly.
There are more than 280 sirens island-wide, covering 97 percent of
residential areas.
The PWS can generate four different warning signals. They
are:
1. The ALARM signal: this is a one minute long, wavering tone.
Sounding this signal means an order to the public to take
shelter.
2. The ALL CLEAR signal: this signal is a one minute steady tone.
Sounding this signal means that the danger is over and people may
come out of shelter.
3. The IMPORTANT MESSAGE signal: which is one minute, fast wavering
tone. Sounding this signal means an order or instruction to the
public to switch on MediaCorp radio and/or MediaCorp TV stations to
tune in to the important message broadcast from the SCDF.
4. The CHIME signal: this is a 20 seconds long, low melody tone.
This signal is used to test the system on the 1st day of each month
at 1200 noon.)
Blasting the warning tones at 118 decibels, all sirens can be
triggered to go off simultaneously.
Selected clusters of sirens can be activated as well, and as a
safety back up measure, the SCDF also has sirens which are
mobile.
"We have a number of mobile siren units that are meant to serve as
a filler, a replacement in case some of those 280 have to be taken
down or found to be faulty," said Jackson Lim, Assistant
Commissioner, Singapore Civil Defence Force.
The SCDF is also exploring other means, such as SMS services, to
further enhance the public warning system. - CNA /dt
