Fire sirens are still useful today for many reasons. They alert pedestrians to clear out in front of the firehouse, alert motorists that volunteers will be driving to the fire station, since they can't have their own sirens, alerts firemen who don't have pagers with them at that exact moment and alerts the person who called that the message was received and that help is on the way. It could even be you that wakes up for the "grandpa siren" when it is your house on fire, and you don't know it. Can you really not put up with one minute of siren? It doesn't even go off every day/night.