ADAMS TWP — A new emergency weather siren and a more streamlined alert app system are two ways the Adams Area Fire District is using new technology for disaster safety in the township.

Chief Tim Llewellyn explained the recent additions to the station to township supervisors and residents at an Adams Township Board of Supervisors meeting Monday night.

The Weather Warning siren program, which was officially set up last weekend, is automatically connected to the National Weather Service and will sound in the case of a tornado warning or severe thunderstorm warning coupled with winds 60 mph or greater, Llewellyn said.

“We're excited about that, to have that in place,” he said. “We will also have training with the police department and public works folks to go over how to manually activate the siren for other types of emergencies.”

Llewellyn said that the department is also planning a public full-scale test for the siren sometime soon, and will release information about the date of the test when it is available.

“We want to make the public aware of what the siren sounds like, so that when they hear it, they know what it is, what to expect, and what to do,” Llewellyn said.

With the help of the township and public safety organizations, he said, the department decided to use a single sound to cover all emergency situations.

“If you hear that noise, it means to go to your cell phone, go to your news channel, call your neighbor to see what is going on,” he said. “It will be the same sound for all weather emergencies.”

New app

The department has begun to use the Rover app to aggregate information about buildings where firefighters are directed.

“When we are dispatched to a fire call from Butler County 911, that information comes across to our iPads,” he said.

The app displays lists of available firefighters, notes that the department has taken about buildings in the area, locations of fire extinguishers and fire hose hook-up locations, floor plans and more.

“I'm happy to say that our firefighters ... are better informed and have more information than they've had in any time previous,” Llewellyn said. “We're very excited to be moving forward with that.”

Llewellyn said that the department had previously had a similar information organization system, but that the new version has “less hiccups.” Each fire truck and chief vehicle has an iPad to access the app on the road.

“It's really a nice system. It takes us right to where we go, and all the fire hydrants are plotted on,” Llewellyn said.