Being near two hospitals, a fire station, and a couple major road ways and the airport I hear a siren or helicopter on a nearly daily basis.
For decades now every time I hear one, I almost always wonder whats happening and often think “some poor soul is having a very bad day…hope it turns out okay”.
I hear them so often that I tune them out. I live a block from two major streets in L.A. and three blocks from the 405, so it’s not unusual to hear sirens several times a day. There are always helicopters flying over too, although they’re not usually after someone – it’s traffic copters or medical helicopters headed for the UCLA medical center.
I hear helicopters often enough, since I live in L.A. One night a high-speed chase actually went right in front of my apartment. Was this crazed-looking maniac driving a van down the road with the tires blown out to the point that sparks were flying everywhere because of the rims grinding on the pavement. There were about a dozen squad cars tailing him.
I live in an interesting neighborhood.
I live in Carson, California, not a terribly upscale neighborhood. In fact, the infamous city of Compton is just a few miles to the north. I live on a major east-west street but surprisingly I hear few sirens.
That said, I live in a mobile home park which up to a few years ago was a senior citizens only park. In other words, geezerville, and when I hear the sounds of emergency vehicles, I realize there is a very good chance that someone here in the park is in medical trouble.
Sure enough, more than half the time the sirens precede the arrival of a fire truck, (usually a hook-and-ladder), followed immediately by a paramedic truck and a civillian ambulance. They generally pass about fifteen feet from my front door. Some times there are three or four Sheriff’s Department cars in attendance, too.
We also get Sheriff’s helicopters circling overhead with Night Sun searchlights illuminating our neighborhood. This occurs about once every two or three weeks.
I hear them rarely - my malamute hears them first, and I don’t hear the siren over his sympathy howling.
Before I got the dog, pretty often - I’m just off a main road, about a block from the police and fire stations.
Before I moved, I lived within 400m of three bikie clubhouses in Sydney’s Inner West, and close enough to a number of boarding houses. I’d probably get woken by an helicopter chase once a week or so.
I see them around; I don’t really pay much attention.
The last house we lived in was across the road from a sea cliff. 2-3 times a year there would be major drama, with police, ambulance and helicopters rescuing someone who fell in, jumped in, got stuck etc. They would be there for ages and it was horrible to see them, knowing that someone was in danger, or already dead, and there was nothing you could do to help, except just stand around. It was a beautiful location to live, but I really don’t miss seeing those helicopters.
We live about 1km from the CFS station so we hear the warning siren frequently. The other night we heard multiple sirens at about midnight:
My office is half a block from a YWCA women’s shelter. Sirens are very common.
I previously lived in inner-urban Melbourne, one street away from a very popular night-life area. Ambulances, police-sirens and whumping helicopters were a constant background noise 'round those parts, day and night
I live in the bush now, and the only noises out here are marauding cockatoos and the ghostly sound of mopokes during the dark hours. 
I live on the boundary of a big city and a pretty well-off inner-ring suburb, and hear police or fire sirens every few days. Once a year or so, a police helicopter comes overhead; we hear medevac and TV news helicopters much more frequently, but rarely so low as to be bothersome. Once the police chased a suspected burglar on foot through our backyard, and caught him just down the street.
From “New York Minute” by Don Henley:
…Lying here in the darkness
I hear the sirens wail
Somebody going to emergency
Somebody’s going to jail
If you find somebody to love in this world
You better hang on tooth and nail
The wolf is always at the door…
I used to live just down the street from a major hospital. Heard sirens all the time, but eventually tuned them out to the point where I slept through absolutely anything. One morning I went downstairs at about eight-thirty am to find that a car had crashed into my building. It was still there, crumpled up, surrounded by bricks and some aluminum siding that had been jarred loose from the impact. I hadn’t heard a thing, but at some point there must have been a rescue crew, cops, residents and the whole nine yards. I’m still amazed that I slept through it all.
Several times a day for me.
We live on a relatively busy street - it runs parallel to one of the main east-west arteries, so it’s a popular secondary route for drivers trying to cut through to downtown without getting snarled up in rush hour traffic… which, obviously, includes any emergency services vehicle that’s trying to get someplace in a hurry.
Also, the closest ER in our part of the city is literally 2km down the street, so we get several ambulances a day zipping by en route to the emergency room.
I’ve learned to tune it all out… it helps that an ex-BF I dated several years ago had an apartment directly across the street from a fire station.