LOCAL : Alarm Startles San Clemente
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Panic-stricken San Clemente residents who mistook an old fire alarm as a warning siren from a nearby nuclear power plant jammed emergency telephone lines at the police station for 20 minutes late last night.
The fire alarm, located across from the San Clemente police and fire station, has been out of service since 1978 and was accidentally tripped about 11:35 p.m. by high winds and heavy rain, police said.
The loud siren, which can be heard throughout the seaside city of 35,000, was once the city’s only way to alert its off-duty and volunteer fire crews in an emergency, Police Sgt. Richard Downing said. The system was made obsolete when fire personnel were issued pagers.
Several emergency sirens for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, located five miles south of the city, are set up throughout south Orange County. Officials said these sirens were not sounded.
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