Workers and residents near downtown Pella are once again receiving a bit of extra warning when Pella’s Fire Department is in action.

Fire Chief Doug Van Gorkom tells KNIA/KRLS News the old fire horn at their building on Main Street is once again active.

“It’s a siren that broke several months ago, and it just took us awhile to get the components–and it’s really the electric components that turn it off and on when the page goes out,” he says.

Van Gorkom says the device works to alert residents as to when they are operating in the event of emergencies.

“It kind of warns the people in the downtown area that there goes the fire alarm–there’s going to be activity,” he says. “There’s going to be firefighters coming to the station, there’s going to be fire trucks leaving the station.

He adds the siren used to be the only notice for firefighters in the community, and was in service when he was growing up as a child in Pella.