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 Air
      
Location: Canada
 |  | Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
< on 10/1/2007 11:38 PM >
|  | | | Everyone disavowing ownership of relics from a time Toronto feared nuclear war
Sep 23, 2007 04:30 AM
Leslie Scrivener
Toronto Star
"It's a neat thing to look at," says Claire Bryden, referring to the air raid siren near the corner of Dundas St. W. and Shaw St., a remnant of Toronto's age of atomic anxiety. The sturdy, horn-shaped siren rests on a rusting column on the property of Bellwoods Centres for Community Living.
Few of these Cold War relics, which would alert the population to an imminent nuclear attack, remain in Toronto. One siren resides atop the York Quay Centre at Harbourfront. Others, like the one on Ward's Island, disappear when buildings get new roofs.
Today, no one claims ownership of the surviving sirens. Call the City of Toronto and they refer you to the province. Call the province and they refer you to the Department of National Defence. Call the Department of National Defence and they refer you to ... the city.
But Claire Bryden is happy to take possession of the one at Dundas and Shaw. Bryden is executive-director of the Bellwoods Centres, which provide homes for people with physical disabilities. The air raid siren, overlooked for decades, suddenly became of interest during construction of a new building. Because it was in the middle of the Bellwoods Park House property, which straddles old Garrison Creek (now flowing through an underground culvert), the siren had to be moved or removed altogether. A new public path, part of a Discovery Walk daytime urban trail from Fort York to Christie Pits, will go through the property right where the siren was.
What to do with the towering artifact? "Rather than throw it away, we decided it's a piece of historical memorabilia," says Bryden, who recalls air-raid-siren practice in her childhood. "It gives character, and we don't see too many around."
Happily, the architect for the new building, David Warne, an associate at Levitt Goodman Architects Ltd., was of similar mind. He thought the air raid siren should be cleaned up and preserved as a piece of urban archaeology. "At the corner of the property, it could be something of a landmark," he says. "Lots of people are fascinated by older technologies, dead tech, a romanticized idea of the industrial era. It's a piece of history that's interesting."
It took Warne about a week of calling department after department to find out who – nobody, it turns out – was responsible for disconnected sirens. "I called the City of Toronto Office of Emergency Management and they sent me to Emergency Management Ontario, who sent me to Public Safety Canada, and they sent me to DND, who got me the name of a captain. He was in charge of air raid sirens all over Canada. He seemed like an older gentleman who had been around at the time.
"He asked me to describe the thing, and when I did, he said, `Oh, that's where that one was,' and proceeded to tell me that in the '70s they swept Ontario of all of these, and this one flew under the radar. They missed it because trees surrounded it.
"I asked him if it was `hot,' and he said it had been disconnected. I asked if we could keep it there, and he said, `I don't care.'
"We wanted to do it, because it's such a beautiful object and takes the story all the way around."
Andrew Burtch, an historian at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa who's writing his PhD dissertation on civil defence in Canada post-1945, tells the beginning of the story. After World War II, an increasingly aggressive Soviet Union was causing anxiety in Western Europe and North America, and talk turned to evacuating cities in case of an atomic attack. As a 1956 U.S. report on evacuation warned, fearfully: "There is only one way to survive under nuclear attack: Don't be there ... to stay will be suicide."
Canada decided to develop a "passive defence system," loosely based on the model Londoners used during the blitz – warning systems, volunteer rescue and firefighting.
The three levels of government agreed to take responsibility for civil defence. But, says Burtch, "municipal governments didn't attend the 1951 co-ordinating meeting, and it created a long and public dispute on where responsibility for survival lay. Each side pointed to the other as being responsible."
Civil defence was chaotic and controversial in Toronto in the 1950s. The federal government delivered sirens to Toronto in 1952, but they gathered dust in storage for four or five years, because the city refused to pay for installation, insisting it was a federal and provincial responsibility.
In 1954, a city controller suggested that instead of air raid sirens, two light aircraft rigged with loudspeakers be sent up as a warning system in the event of an attack. Civic leaders were further incensed later that year when a defence official said Toronto was not one of the "vital points" in Canada to be defended if the country was invaded.
In 1956, the civil defence organization still hadn't erected the sirens, but it did spend $400 for teacups and saucers for refreshments for volunteers who might appreciate some refreshments after a night's training. (In 1959, Canada had 279,320 civilian volunteers drawn from the Legion, veterans and other community groups. "Everybody wanted uniforms and helmets," Burtch says. "They wanted to be recognized. But most typically they got an armband.")
When the sirens were finally installed, many were defective – a problem with the wiring. And in 1959, the question of the need for an air raid siren on the Toronto Islands was raised. "Where on earth would the residents go?" the mayor of Leaside asked. A 1961 Canada-wide air raid drill led many Torontonians to complain they couldn't hear the sirens; others griped that the sirens woke their children.
"By 1967 civil defence was fighting for its life," says Burtch. Then, in the 1970s, the threat of a nuclear attack began to decline, and with the development of new technologies – high-speed missiles and the like – the usefulness of a warning system diminished. Practical warning time went from three to five hours in the 1950s to less than 15 minutes in the missile age, Burtch notes.
Responsibility for remaining air raid sirens – some of which are listed in The Siren Archive website (www.jmarcoz.com/sirens/sirenarchive.htm) – is as murky now as it was in the beginning.
"The province owned the air raid sirens," says a city hall official.
"The extraordinary beauty of things that fail." - Heinrich von Kleist |
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Stewie
 
Location: Hamilton, Ontario
Gender: Male
kill your idols
| |  | Re: Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
<Reply # 1 on 10/1/2007 11:52 PM >
| | | | There used to be one on top of a building near the meet spot for the Toronto Meet. I guess it was taken down some time this or last year.
> The hierarchy of power dictates that the person with the most power does the least amount of work and retains the highest benefit. |
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CopySix
Location: Barrie, Ontario, Canada
Gender: Male
Agent of the System
| | | Re: Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
<Reply # 2 on 10/2/2007 12:25 AM >
| | | | There are (or were) several of these fvckers in London when I was growing up.
The frigg'n thing would malfunction several times a year.
I should think it still serves a purpose with the number of tornadoes which pull through that area (once every few short years). I'm now living in the ass-end of tornado alley (Barrie) and feeling a bit safer - the last one was in the late 80's (it killed about 14 people  )
. . . anywho - very interesting article - thanks Air !
'ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US'
URBEX - http://www.UrbExBarrie.Blogspot.com
Magic: The GAthering - http://www.MTG-Realm.Blogspot.com |
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Thadius
 
Location: Hamilton
Gender: Male
Above all, Truth
| |  |  |  | Re: Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
<Reply # 3 on 10/2/2007 1:53 AM >
| | | | I remember one of those things on a large green pole outside the plaza near the old Cathedral Girls High School in Downtown Hamilton. I also remember one on a white scaffold near where the Red Hill Creek Expressway is now being built. I always wondered what went through people's minds when those things went off. I also feared for the lives of the older folk who might have had a heart attack thinking invasion was imminent if they malfunxioned.
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Air
Location: Canada
| | Re: Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
<Reply # 4 on 10/2/2007 1:59 AM >
| | | | Posted by CopySix
There are (or were) several of these fvckers in London when I was growing up.
The frigg'n thing would malfunction several times a year.
I should think it still serves a purpose with the number of tornadoes which pull through that area (once every few short years). I'm now living in the ass-end of tornado alley (Barrie) and feeling a bit safer - the last one was in the late 80's (it killed about 14 people )
. . . anywho - very interesting article - thanks Air !
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I've only ever heard one at ol' ipper....! For a tornado each year I was there 
"The extraordinary beauty of things that fail." - Heinrich von Kleist |
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Thadius
Location: Hamilton
Gender: Male
Above all, Truth
| | | | | Re: Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
<Reply # 5 on 10/2/2007 2:10 AM >
| | | | Posted by Air 33
I've only ever heard one at ol' ipper....! For a tornado each year I was there
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hahahah, I went to Ipperwash for Army Cadets and bloody hell that siren went off at least once a fortnight. I hated it most in the middle of the night when you had to run to the barracks in your underwear and take a head count of your Cadets.
sigh...I do miss Ipperwash though. I have some of the best memories of my youth from there.
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Air
Location: Canada
| | Re: Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
<Reply # 6 on 10/2/2007 2:17 AM >
| | | | Posted by Thadius
hahahah, I went to Ipperwash for Army Cadets and bloody hell that siren went off at least once a fortnight. I hated it most in the middle of the night when you had to run to the barracks in your underwear and take a head count of your Cadets.
sigh...I do miss Ipperwash though. I have some of the best memories of my youth from there.
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We should chat!
"The extraordinary beauty of things that fail." - Heinrich von Kleist |
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hyphen
Location: Ontario, Canada
Gender: Male
| | Re: Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
<Reply # 7 on 10/2/2007 1:44 PM >
| | | | Posted by CopySix
I'm now living in the ass-end of tornado alley (Barrie) and feeling a bit safer - the last one was in the late 80's (it killed about 14 people )
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I was living in Newmarket, Ontario, and that fucker ruined my 6th birthday party! We were supposed to be outside playing baseball, and instead we were stuck in the house keeping away from windows and watching massive hail pelt everything in sight.
Ahh 1985.
I later lived in Campbellford, ON, and until about '92 or so, they used to rock the town air raid siren once a month or so. I'm still not sure why they were testing it. Volunteer fire department, maybe?
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mortimer
Location: teronno
| | | Re: Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
<Reply # 8 on 10/2/2007 1:50 PM >
| | | | Posted by langP
I later lived in Campbellford, ON, and until about '92 or so, they used to rock the town air raid siren once a month or so. I'm still not sure why they were testing it. Volunteer fire department, maybe?
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Probably. The town I grew up in had the volunteer fire department called in via siren until pagers became widespread and cheap.
That story is interesting, partially because I seem to see this story every few years, it just rotates around to different papers. There was one in Now or Eye about two years ago. Also, if anyone is actually really interested, there's an odd-shaped one on top of Community Centre 55 on Main Street in the east end of T.O.
yep. |
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hyphen
Location: Ontario, Canada
Gender: Male
| | Re: Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
<Reply # 9 on 10/2/2007 2:18 PM >
| | | | Posted by mortimer
Probably. The town I grew up in had the volunteer fire department called in via siren until pagers became widespread and cheap.
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Yeah, that's kinda what I was thinking. It seems so quaint now, doesn't it? Like a story your grandparents tell or something. . . not something that happened during MY lifetime.
In honor of this thread, I'm listening to War Pigs by Black Sabbath. One of my favourite air raid siren recordings.
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Axle
Location: Milton, ON
Gender: Male
Sieg oder Tod
| | Re: Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
<Reply # 10 on 10/2/2007 3:20 PM >
| | | | There was one in Milton on Mary Street in a public Parking lot behind my church. I remember once asking my mom about it, (we're talking 80s and early 90s). She told me.
It sucks that they tore it down.
Celer at Audax
Para la Victoria Siempre Alemanes! |
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mortimer
Location: teronno
| | | Re: Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
<Reply # 11 on 10/2/2007 6:36 PM >
| | | | Posted by langP
Yeah, that's kinda what I was thinking. It seems so quaint now, doesn't it? Like a story your grandparents tell or something. . . not something that happened during MY lifetime.
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Kinda like the fact that I can remember having a bank account before interac and ATMs. And I went to photography school when this:
http://www.dprevie...k/kodak_dcs420.asp
was the top of the line for digital cameras, and was worth somewhere in the neighbourhood of $12,000 (CDN).
| In honor of this thread, I'm listening to War Pigs by Black Sabbath. One of my favourite air raid siren recordings. |
I'm going for Nation of Millions. Bass for your face, London, everybody in the house make some noise.
yep. |
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z0th
Location: /dev/urandom
Gender: Male
On the bleeding edge of cocking things up.
| | | Re: Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
<Reply # 12 on 10/2/2007 8:41 PM >
| | | | Posted by CopySixI'm now living in the ass-end of tornado alley (Barrie) and feeling a bit safer - the last one was in the late 80's (it killed about 14 people )
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there used to be an air raid siren in barrie on anne street about halfway down the hill, between letitia and shirley ave (i think -- near the pump house). used to see it on a daily basis driving in to work from north of town. then one day it was gone.
a friend told me that the city of orangeville at one point used the sirens to signal the local curfew.
gallery | deviantart | flickr |
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Boffo
Moderator
Location: Smithers, BC
Gender: Male
HONK! HONK!
| | Re: Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
<Reply # 13 on 10/2/2007 8:59 PM >
| | | | It sounds like most of these started to malfunction and then were scrapped. I know that's what I heard happened out in Oakville.
Here's a lockpick. It might be handy if you, the master of unlocking, take it with you. |
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Yehoshua
Location: Ontario
Gender: Male
| | Re: Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
<Reply # 14 on 10/8/2007 12:36 AM >
| | | | It's not theft, if nobody claims ownership...right?
Our Citizen.
Our Justice.
Bring Omar Khadr back to Canada. |
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NoSuchPerson
Stop, or I'll ask you again!
| | Re: Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
<Reply # 15 on 10/8/2007 1:58 AM >
| | | | Oh god.
There was one of these on my old High School in Port Colborne (back in the day, it was one of the tallest structures in the City). I remember one night being woken up by this god awfully loud noise that I'd never heard before. Well sure enough, guess what happened? Seems some hooligans screwed around with the thing on the roof and managed to set it off. Took a good 2 hours to get shut off as well.
Infact...
Look in the middle of the black circle, just to the right of where Google Maps belches... It's still there - the orange thing.
Unit calling radio say again? |
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Mutt
Moderator
Location: Bunbury, Western Australia
Support your local Funeral Director ----- Drop Dead!
| | | Re: Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
<Reply # 16 on 10/9/2007 3:47 AM >
| | | | The volunteer Fire Dept in Hillsburgh used one as a call out for the firefighters when I was living there in the mid 80's. I think most of the volunteers get the signal from a pager as well as hearing the siren. As far as I can tell they still use it.
The firehouse is two concessions away from my house at the time and it would wake us up easily when there was a fire. I kinda felt sorry for my friend that lived across the street from it.
All men are cremated equal. |
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Wiccan
Location: Hamilton Ontario
Gender: Female
| | Re: Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
<Reply # 17 on 10/9/2007 6:30 PM >
| | | | There was a siren on top of Hillcrest school(which also served temporarily as a war hospital at one time)in Hamilton when I attended there years back,but had been taken down long before the school was eventually demolished.
http://www.uer.ca/...ow.asp?locid=25069
I remember staring at it alot and wondering what it was for.
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Arc_Tangent
Arrr, I'm a PIRATE!
Location: Steel-Town
NYAH!!!
| | | Re: Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
<Reply # 18 on 10/14/2007 3:10 PM >
| | | | Posted by Boffo
It sounds like most of these started to malfunction and then were scrapped. I know that's what I heard happened out in Oakville.
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Yeah there was one near E.J James middle school and apparently it'd get set off by passing birds.
[15:17:47] <Arc_Tangent> Hirnduebel: you rock.
[15:18:15] <Hirnduebel> Arc: You're a rock yourself you rock! |
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hyphen
Location: Ontario, Canada
Gender: Male
| | Re: Old war relics dot Toronto - Article
<Reply # 19 on 10/15/2007 3:09 AM >
| | | | And because today's the 15 of the month, and just past noon, I just heard the sirens here in Seoul. They only cranked them on for a second, but a couple of years ago it was common for the "civil defense drills" to last 15 minutes.
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