VIDEO: Tornado sirens are vital on days like Sunday when the public needs to take shelter quickly. But the city of Granville ran into complications when its emergency siren didnโt work to warn residents of a tornado.
Fire Chief Shane Thull said the current siren, which is broken, is attached to the fire hall from when it was used to page firefighters. โWith the siren being down, me and another firefighter took it upon ourselves to put a truck out on the street with the Q-siren and the PA telling people to take shelter,โ said Thull.
He said they spent roughly 15 minutes driving around the town of some 240 people until the state radio said they were no longer in a warning. Even when it is working, Thull said to start it, someone has to go to the station and press a button. He said it could put that person in harmโs way if thereโs severe weather. Thull explained the siren was new in 2012, but has been repaired three times, and another fix would be costly.
โHard to find adequate funds to fix stuff like that, especially when money and budgets are tight,โ said Thull. He shared that the repair will likely be between $3,000 and $5,000 and that the city doesnโt have the money to pay for it at this time. Thull said the fire protection district and city are working together to find funding to repair the siren system.
Thull said Rural Firefighter Adam McTaggart and Granville citizen Corey Long drove around town, alerting residents about the warning, while Thull stayed at the fire hall, running an engine siren while trying to get the tornado siren to work. Your News Leader reached out to Granville Mayor Anthony Zimbelman, who said the city is working with the fire protection district on a solution to the tornado siren situation.
