Do not panic! Today is the siren test – what to do in an emergency

You don’t think anything bad and suddenly the crying starts. The unpleasant howling sound is barely audible. It’s siren test again.

But what should the population do in an emergency? And how many sirens are there actually? All information here:

As a rule, the authorities test the siren alarm in Switzerland on the first Wednesday of February. Why? In fact, information about this has been lost over the years. It seemed prudent to conduct the test on a normal working day and not on a weekend, so that the relevant offices of the Federal Bureau of Civil Protection (FOCP) are complete. Wednesday afternoon is also suitable because then the school lessons will not be disturbed.

In total, the authorities warn the population of dangers with about 7,200 sirens. These are mounted on roofs of buildings in places with more than 100 inhabitants. There are also just over 2,000 mobile sirens available to reach people in remote areas. These are mounted on emergency vehicles of the police or fire brigade. The sirens are designed to sound the alarm within a radius of approximately 2000 metres.

The functionality of the alert is quite good. On average, about 2 percent of all sirens have problems – that’s about 140 sirens. Last year, 99 percent of all alarms worked. If you do not hear a siren during the test, you can contact the civil protection bureau of your canton.

Basically there are two types of sirens in Switzerland: the more modern, electronic type and the older, pneumatic type. The electronic siren works with loudspeakers and amplifiers. The pneumatics, on the other hand, generate the howling sound with compressed air stored on site.

In principle, the federal government can only sound the sirens in case of increased radioactivity to warn the population. Then the red button would be pressed by the National Emergency Center (NAZ). But actually the cantons themselves are responsible for responding to threats. They are instructed to sound the sirens only when the lives of many are in danger.

This threat to the population can be the result of a terrorist attack, a storm or a chemical accident. There is also a separate alarm for flooding, then the water alarm sounds.

The rules in the event of an emergency are simple: turn on the radio or consult the alert app, follow the instructions of the authorities and inform the neighbours. If there is a water alarm, leave the area immediately and go to a higher altitude.

The BABS contradicts this accusation of the population. Although the Alertswiss alerting app has been around since 2018, it still relies on several alerting channels. “For the visually impaired or people without modern means of communication, for example, the alarm will continue to be useful and necessary in the future,” the Bundesamt writes on its website.

> Here you can download the app for your smartphone

The cantons themselves are responsible for activating and maintaining the alarms. Although the FOCP at the federal level coordinates the annual siren test and tests the sirens for functionality, they are used in the cantons and municipalities. The water alarm is triggered by those responsible for dams.

The first nationwide test took place in the 1970s. From 1982 to 1990 it even took place twice a year. Then the loudspeakers screeched not only in February, but also in September. However, the construction of the siren network started before the Second World War and dates back to the regulation on the alarm to protect against air raids of September 18, 1936. The population must be protected against disasters and informed about protective measures.

The history of alarming the population goes back even further. Pneumatic sirens have been used since 1962 and electronic sirens since 1983. All have been connected to the national Polyalert network since 2015 and the alert app Alertswiss has been available in Switzerland since 2018.

This refers to the sheep in a 2014 BABS commercial. Here you can see the complicated activation procedure of the siren test in a calamity: