Correction: June 7, 2021

Sheyenne Fire Chief Elvis Thumb contacted the Transcript to request clarification regarding the change in procedures which resulted from the May 13 meeting at Ostby Hall, which had been reported in the May 24 issue.  

The Sheyenne Fire Department does not rely on the sirens to notify them in the event of a fire. Sheyenne volunteer firefighters carry pagers, and they have used eDispatch to receive cell phone notifications as long as New Rockford has. The procedural change simply involves the order in when each is activated. “Since I’ve joined the department it’s been siren first, then page immediately after. It will now be page first and then siren,” Thumb said. However, as the Transcript reported previously, on the night of the Genre fire, volunteers did not receive a page until 15 minutes after the siren was first activated. “The Genre fire was a horrible incident and I hope no one ever has to go through that,” Thumb added. As for changes proposed by the 911 system, he said, “It will be nice with closer time intervals between pages. We're not the biggest nor best department in North Dakota, but we do the best we are capable of doing during each page.”