Valley View fire chief on warning siren malfunction: 'We're trying to be transparent'
VALLEY VIEW, Texas - The fire chief for a small town impacted by a deadly EF-3 tornado over the weekend tells FOX 4 an "unknown wiring issue" kept an outdoor siren from going off during a Tornado Warning.
The warning siren had not been tested in two months. And when volunteer firefighters tried to activate it, nothing happened.
The emergency siren was not working when the tornado leveled a gas station and other parts of Valley View.
However, the fire chief says even if it had been working, the hardest hit areas weren’t within range to hear it.
"I don’t think the city realized that any wiring that had anything to do with the siren was messed with," said Valley View Volunteer Fire Chief Zack Kupper.
The VFD operates mostly on donations. Firefighters typically have jobs away from the department.
"We are 100 percent volunteer," the fire chief said. "Nobody makes money here."
Kupper says the siren had not been tested in a couple of months, and an unknown wiring issue stemming from renovations at city hall, where the siren is connected, prevented it from turning on.
"We came up, and we actually pushed the button, and it didn’t work. And that’s what we’re trying to be transparent about: it did not work. We’re telling you it didn’t," he said.
At 10:24 p.m. that evening, the department posted to Facebook: "Very large storm cell capable of producing a tornado is headed directly for Valley View. The storm siren is not functioning! Take cover."
However, at some point after the tornado hit, the post was deleted.
"I’m the one who said, ‘Alright, take it down. Let’s delete it because we were getting bashed,’" Kupper admitted. "And it’s not something we needed to have."
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Had the siren been working, Chief Kupper says it would not have reached the unincorporated area outside city limits where several lives were lost in a trailer park.
"You’re not going to hear that siren. The community that was affected, the community that got hit the hardest is over three miles away. Where the lives were lost is 3.5 to four miles away. Well out of the range of the siren, and that’s a straight shot," he said.
The chief says people can hear the siren about two miles away. However, the range shrinks if there’s interfering noise as is with severe weather or if people are indoors.
"We have been looking at ways to improve the siren system for the city limits," he said. "We’ve been working with the city of Valley View, getting more options."
The tornado left many with nothing.
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The city and fire departments have been providing families with what they can to help them get by during this difficult time.
"Our main priority now is just be out there and be close to people that have a need for us," Kupper said. "Just being present for them and being present for the community."