Protests Over Siren Fall on Deaf Ears

Student protests by the dozens won't persuade fire officials to silence the noontime blast of the Civil Defense siren stop Littauer, Deputy Fire Chief Edmund Burke said yesterday.

Fire officials have received a number of student protests about the blasts, according to Burke, and most of them come shortly after noon on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday--the time the siren is tested.

The siren can't be silenced, Burke said, because they have to make sure that it is still working, and that is three times weekly.

The $2100 siren was granted the city by the Federal government on the condition that it be used only for air raid alert within the five-mile Littauer area. But even if it does, fire officials quietly wish that the protests went to Washington. After all, they say, the machine belongs to the Federal government.