How a warning siren became tradition at Carolina Hurricanes games

The lights dim. The anticipation builds. More than 18,000 hockey fans rise from their Lenovo Center seats, strobes flashing around them, as the Carolina Hurricanes’ pregame show nears its end.

A final deep bass “thump,” and then — a moment of calm. A spotlight fixates on Section 229.

With cameras showing the hockey team making its way from the locker room to the ice, someone, often a local or regional celebrity, plants their left foot, steadies a metal contraption with their left arm and cranks a rotating handle.

Hard.

A thunderous wail roars through the arena.

The siren has sounded.

Raleigh is ready.

The Hurricanes debuted the pregame siren during the 2008-2009 season as a way to supercharge the energy before puck drops. In the playoffs, in particular, the Hurricanes work to find siren sounders who have an audible impact on the atmosphere in the building. Country star Scotty McCreery — who’s had season tickets to the Canes and is from Garner— has been a frequent sounder; NASCAR driver and North Carolina native William Byron another. Petey Pablo, a rapper known as the author of the Hurricanes’ goal song and motto, “Raise Up,” has also turned the crank, along with several area coaches and top athletes.

But why? And how does it all work?

Keepers of the siren

Chris Greenley, Sam Heinsohn and Leah Bellio — part ringmasters, part crisis managers and all proud gingers — form the behind-the-scenes team orchestrating one of the Hurricanes’ loudest, most cherished traditions.

Heinsohn, the director of entertainment, creates the in-game scripts and stage-manages. Bellio, an entertainment coordinator and unofficial “keeper of the siren,” leads the Canes Crew and assists Heinsohn behind the scenes. Greenley, the Hurricanes’ VP of entertainment and production, is the logistical backbone.

Though the siren is just one part of their jobs, it’s a task they take seriously.

“It doesn’t make or break the team’s performance, but it makes or breaks a moment for fans in a big game where they’re super excited to be here,” Greenley said, “and so we need this to go well. Sam and Leah do a great job of making sure that’s true.”

Canes’ siren history

Today’s siren — a carefully maintained piece of Hurricanes folklore — has evolved over the years through a mix of innovation, improvisation and the occasional breakdown. Early iterations were humble. The “OG” siren was mounted on a wooden base and often wedged up against the glass in section 229, its home base. Eventually, as Heinsohn explained, the Hurricanes’ entertainment team decided to move the siren to the center of the section to better anchor it in camera shots.

That required a trip to The Home Depot, where locking caster wheels were purchased and promptly added to the base of the siren. But there was still an issue with the wooden base.

“We were cutting our hands a lot, truthfully, with locking it in place,” Heinsohn said.

She wanted something that was more permanent, sturdy and a little less dangerous. Her team commissioned a custom metal base from an outside company, complete with a matching Hurricanes decal on the bottom to maintain the signature look.

To take the experience up a notch, Heinsohn and crew ordered a newer siren model from Amazon. It was something different and, most importantly, red.

Has Canes siren sounding ever gone wrong?

But then came the “two unfortunate breaks.”

In April 2023, former N.C. State linebacker Isaiah Moore managed to silence the siren — snapping an internal mechanism and rendering it mute.

Not even a month later, former Carolina Panthers running back Jonathan Stewart took things a step further (albeit unintentionally) in Game 1 of the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals when he tore the siren head from its base.

The morning after that game — a 3-2 loss to the Florida Panthers in quadruple overtime, marking the sixth-longest game in NHL history — Heinsohn woke up at 8 a.m. to a string of videos on her phone. It was Stewart, wandering around his house, gleefully cranking the broken siren and filming himself from room to room. Heinsohn and her team ended up turning the footage into a hype video.

The detached siren? It’s still in Stewart’s possession.

Those mishaps led to important upgrades. The siren is no longer supplied by Amazon; it’s sourced from FX In Motion, a company specializing in sports entertainment equipment, and has a specifically designed metal base that can withstand the enthusiastic cranking of guests.

The team always keeps a backup siren ready, to make sure the fans feel the noise. When Moore broke the primary siren in 2023, Canes staff quickly hauled in the spare, which also travels to watch parties and road events.

The tradition has become so renowned that other NHL teams, like the Vegas Golden Knights, have sought out the Lenovo Center squad’s expertise.

“They reached out to us and said, ‘Can we have the siren? Can that be something we do?,’” Greenley said. “And we were like, ‘Sure!’”

How to sound the Canes siren

One of the most important tips Greenley and Heinsohn can share are the specific techniques for sounding the siren. Yes, you heard correctly, there is a right and wrong way to do this.

Heinsohn said siren sounders usually come to her with “about 38 differing opinions on how they should sound it,” but she gives them all the same instructions: place one foot firmly on the base, grip the top of the siren with their left hand and use their right hand to crank — forward, not backward. There’s a precise timing that coincides with the team’s entrance. With roughly 2:40 or 2:30 left before the next period, Heinsohn cues the siren sounder. The entire experience is carefully choreographed, with considerations for camera angles, lighting, and the potential fatigue of the guest.

“Especially the pregame one, it’s been taking them [the Hurricanes] about 30 to 40 seconds to come out,” Heinsohn said, “Which when you’re cranking the siren, that’s a long time to — with maximum effort — crank the siren.”

As soon as the video board cuts to the team coming out of the locker room, Heinsohn gives the siren sounder a thumbs up or a light tap on the back.

Their work there is done.

“Usually by the time they get to me, they have received multiple instructions,” Heinsohn said. “So I try to keep it pretty clear and simple so as to not overwhelm them from the pressures that they are feeling from all of their fans and family that are watching and judging.”

I even had my own siren moment — lights, cue and all — and I’m proud to report I pushed it all the way to 117 decibels. The only thing I couldn’t crank loose? The names of this weekend’s siren sounders.

But, whoever they are, it’s safe to say they’ll join a legacy of noise, nerves — and a committed team ready to make sure the moment hits just right.

Uniquely NC is a News & Observer subscriber collection of moments, landmarks and personalities that define the uniqueness (and pride) of why we live in the Triangle and North Carolina.

This story was originally published May 9, 2025 at 12:30 PM.