Dunsmuir schedules two‑minute siren test, adopts narrow use policy for evacuation orders

Adam Hoffman, who identified himself as a long‑time fire department radio communications lead and county emergency manager, told the council that the city had replaced obsolete siren controllers and programmed a distinct evacuation tone pattern. "At this point, coordinating with Steven, we're gonna send out a notification to the general Dunsmuir area ... at 05:50PM tomorrow night. So we're hoping that message will go out to everybody who has signed up for that notification system. And then at 6PM sharp, we will set off the evacuation tone, and we will see what happens," he said.

Council and staff discussed alerting systems. Hoffman described the Ready Siskiyou platform (phone, text, email, county OES Facebook) and explained why the county would not use IPAWS for this particular test: IPAWS can be less geographically pinpointed and messages are limited in length. He also said a countywide Ready Siskiyou test is tentatively scheduled for June 11, which could include an IPAWS test. City staff clarified an evacuation siren policy: the siren will sound only for an evacuation order (the most severe issuance) and will run for two minutes; under current policy the plan is not to repeat the two‑minute cycle to avoid confusion.

Officials said staff will monitor siren air supply and functionality at remote devices and will revise procedures if technical issues appear during the trial. The council encouraged residents to sign up for Ready Siskiyou to receive the geographic and text‑based notices that will explain where an evacuation order applies.