Firefighters at the Papamoa Fire Station are hopeful their siren will be turned back on.

The siren has currently been silenced following a single complaint to the mayor in September last year.

The station silenced the siren as a six-week trial.

Papamoa Fire Brigade deputy chief Brent Sanford says the pagers are not reliable, and sometimes he doesn't get the calls at all.

'They're hit and miss. The technology is still not 100 per cent effective.”

He says by having the siren people know help is on the way.

He also says many of the residents want it back on at night.

Brent says there were only three times last year when the siren went off at night, within hours of each other.

But SunLive spoke to residents in the area who agreed the siren should stay off.

One resident who lives beneath the siren, describes it as a ‘nightmare'.

'We've got a two-year-old, double glazing doesn't block the sound… and when people come round their kids freak out.”

He describes the sound as ‘long, slow and piercing'.

'It's terrible. It should stay off.”

He says technology is not an issue in Papamoa.

'Realistically we're gonna have internet.”

Another resident agreed, saying it was good that it had been turned off.

'Living underneath it is not fun.”

She says she couldn't talk while the siren was on.

'It would be nice not to have to wait before carrying on a conversation.”

She says other emergency services have pagers, and they wouldn't have turned the siren off if they didn't think there was another way.

'It's not gonna make the place less safe.”

The station will have another meeting in February to discuss the issue.