Imagine it's midnight and fire sirens are wailing around your home. If you're outside watching smoke pour out of your windows, you're happy that help is on the way. But if your house isn't on fire ...

To the untrained ear, the siren West Peoria's Fire Department uses to call its volunteer force to the firehouse on Waverly Avenue sounds a lot like the shrill tone that tells people to take cover.

and its twin town of Gardnerville by 6:30 p.m. The ordinance was repealed in 1974 but the siren, behind the firehouse on Highway 395, continued to sound at 6 p.m. Minden officials argued before ...