Jill Schramm/MDN To hear the siren tones on a Ward County Sheriff's Department vehicle, check it out on this website or the MDN Facebook page.

Racing down the road with lights flashing and sirens blaring, emergency vehicles are equipped to get attention.

They don’t all sound the same, though, and some sounds are particularly distinct. Emergency vehicles typically are fitted with sirens that offer a selection of tones, and while there are some differences among the sirens used by local agencies, there are similarities, too.

“It would be difficult to know what type of emergency vehicle was coming, just on the sound alone,” said Aaron Moss, master police officer with the Minot Police Department.

In fact, there is no standardization required among law enforcement agencies in North Dakota when it comes to sirens. The Minot department’s vehicles are equipped with sirens offering the same three selections, but the choice regarding which siren to use at any given time is up to the officer in the vehicle.

It is common to hear the siren sound change as a vehicle nears an intersection or other congested area.

“If there’s people looking at where that siren is coming from, that change in the sound will help them find you and make everyone safer,” Moss said.

The Minot Fire Department has the three electronic siren sounds plus a fourth manual siren. The fourth siren is the iconic Q-siren that gives fire trucks the sound for which they are best known.

“The Q siren is very distinct and very loud. That one probably gets the most attention,” said Assistant Fire Chief Lonnie Sather. “It’s used a lot when they are approaching areas of traffic.”

The driver activates the Q-siren not with a switch but by stepping on a button.

“We can hold and sustain that at that higher level for quite a while,” Sather said.

The fire truck’s electronic siren’s three options include the European-style high-low sound, although whether or when to use it depends on the preference of crew making the run.

All Community Ambulance vehicles, with the exception of one older vehicle, have the high-low option popular in the United Kingdom, said Greg Anderson, executive director for Community Ambulance. Many ambulance manufacturers use the same siren model, which has three or four options, he said.

Because it is more distinct, the high-low tone is often the sound of choice for areas where safety is a particular concern.

“It’s really an effective tone to gather people’s attentions,” Anderson said.

The high-low sound is a favorite of Maj. Larry Hubbard, chief deputy in the Ward County Sheriff’s Department.

“I have always liked that, but my father was in the military so we lived in Europe and I got used to hearing it,” he said.

However, the aim of having a variety of sounds is to avoid anyone becoming used to a single tone.

“Studies have been done over the years that – like anything else – you get used to hearing something and you somewhat block it out. As law enforcement has evolved, even from the ’80s, a lot of the systems have been upgraded and they have more capabilities, so multi-sounds come with the sirens,” Hubbard said. “We have felt it beneficial to be able to change the sound in conjunction with using the air horn, especially when we reach intersections. It really gets somebody’s attention.”