Loud siren heard in Provo was simply an Election Day tradition

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PROVO — Provo emergency manager Chris Blinzinger asked a rhetorical question: When do you check the batteries on your smoke alarm?

The answer, at least for Provo City, is Election Day.

On Tuesday, a loud siren was heard coming from the top of the city center. To Blinzinger and the rest of the Provo City emergency team, it was nothing noteworthy — just the annual tradition of testing the old 1950's era defense siren.

"I've been with Provo for 10 years," Blinzinger said. "For each year, we have sent that siren off on Election Day. That's just the day that was chosen. And I think they did it before I got there 10 years ago and we've just carried on the tradition."

It's a tradition, though, that many residents might not have been aware of.

With the heightened stress of this election — with some businesses in Utah even boarding up their windows due to fears of unrest on the streets following election results — it caused people to think something may be wrong.

"It got some people's ire today," Blinzinger said.

And it didn't help that there were more sirens heard through Provo due to a structure fire and a significant car accident. Provo Police also said that they had to test the siren twice.

"We had lots of sirens go on down past city center," Blinzinger said. "Those are not things we can control, and those aren't planned events, but they were occurring. Along with the comments about the siren test, we had people asking, well, what were all the sirens about? Well, people are injured and there's a house burning down."

A slightly busier day? Sure. But no mass chaos going on or reason to panic. Once city officials realized they had caused some alarm, they sent out an announcement letting people know of the planned siren blast.

"We did get the message out but it was late, and it did not even occur to us that something would be out of the norm," Blinzinger said.

Because to the city, it was normal. It's just when they check their smoke alarm.