City of Marlow donates storm sirens to Fox

During a troubling night of brewing storms, Marlow City Administrator Jason McPherson and Fire Chief Jason Miller coordinated to bring tornado sirens to Fox.

While the grim weather never materialized, McPherson said that it was better safe than sorry, and that it was a fantastic opportunity to help a community in need.

“On May 6, one of the many May evenings that weather was expected to be particularly treacherous, I got home and settled in to eat dinner and watch the storm coverage,” said McPherson.

“I hopped on social media to look at a recent forecast, and the first post I had seen caught my attention.”

The post was from Fox Public Schools from Fox Fire Chief Carl Taylor stating that the tornado siren in the town wasn’t working and that, in the case of emergency, the Fox / Graham Volunteer Fire Department would sound a high-low truck siren to alert the community.

The City of Marlow had just completed a project to add three new sirens to replace the 5 aging sirens, one of which didn’t work at all, according to McPherson.

“We had just had a conversation of finding someone that may need sirens,” McPherson explained, “I texted Fire Chief Miller and asked if he knew Chief Taylor. His response was no, but he could find out.”

As it turned out, Chief Miller has just taught a class in Ratliff City (just north of Fox). He made a couple of inquiries and had Chief Carl Taylor’s number in hand.

Chief Taylor was facing a dilemma of not having a working siren – the only siren in town.

He got the call from Marlow and jumped at the chance.

Chief Taylor told Chief Miller he would take two of the four that were believed to have been working. Fox would add one to the south end of the community to increase their coverage.

On May 31, The city of Marlow electric department delivered two sirens to the Fox/Graham Volunteer Fire Department station.

While the evening of May 6 turned out to be a non-event for disastrous storms, the City of Marlow, Marlow Electric Department, and Marlow Fire Department came together to make sure that if- and when- severe weather rolls back through the area that Fox would be prepared.