ST. LOUIS — Mayor Cara Spencer late Tuesday night placed the head of the city's emergency management office on paid administrative leave, saying she wanted to provide accountability after tornado sirens weren't activated ahead of last week's deadly tornado.

In announcing the leave of Sarah Russell, Spencer indicated she planned to eventually find another commissioner to lead the City Emergency Management Agency. And she vowed to launch an external investigation of the siren failure and any other related issues.

Spencer, in a statement, said CEMA failed to "alert the public to dangers."

“Commissioner Russell has served our city for years and is a person of good will, but I cannot move on from this without providing accountability and ensuring that our emergency management is in trusted hands," the mayor said.

She announced that John Walk, a captain with the Fire Department, will lead CEMA "until a permanent commissioner has been found." She also said that Michael Thiemann, a division chief with the Metro West Fire Protection District, would provide the city with "additional incident management response support."

Spencer's actions came amid mounting criticism for the siren failure and for not providing many details about what went wrong. The tornado on Friday afternoon killed five people in the city.

“I feel like they’re responsible for my mother’s death,” Reginald Holmes, whose mother Delois Holmes was among the victims, told the Post-Dispatch earlier on Tuesday about the siren failure.

On late Tuesday night, in the city's release about Russell's leave, Spencer said an internal investigation into the siren failure revealed "multiple" issues, prompting her decision to seek an external investigation of CEMA.

She pointed to various details, including a malfunctioning button in the Fire Department to set off sirens.

On Friday afternoon, Russell and other CEMA staffers were at a workshop — and not at their office, where another button to activate sirens is located — even though strong storms were forecast. Russell, the release said, contacted the Fire Department to sound the sirens.

"At that point, there was a breakdown in communication," the release said. "The directive to activate the sirens was ambiguous, which cannot happen when a tornado is sweeping through our city and St. Louisans’ safety depends on being alerted immediately."

As part of the release, the city included a recording of a phone call between Russell and a Fire Department employee about the siren activation. The call starts with a short discussion about a tornado warning that had been issued, with Russell expressing confusion about when it expired.

Then, Russell says, "You got the sirens?"

"Yes ma'am," the Fire Department employee says.

"All right, thank you so much," Russell responds.

Later, in a test on Tuesday, the city realized that the button in the Fire Department to set off sirens wasn't working, according to the release. Repairs began immediately and are expected to be done "within days." Until then, a Fire Department employee will be at the CEMA office around the clock to to activate sirens if needed.

In addition to the communication issues, Spencer pointed to "confusion" in the city's protocols for activating sirens, with unclear lines of responsibility between CEMA and the Fire Department. The mayor earlier this week moved the authority for activating sirens solely to the Fire Department.

“The failure to activate the siren during a tornado has rightfully angered St. Louisans, including myself,” Spencer said in the release. “While my first priority on this issue was to make sure this can never happen again, our community deserves full transparency and accountability.”

St. Louis operates 60 warnings sirens, and an upgrade is underway. The city also has an online and text alert program.

'A lot of questions'

In the days after the tornado, city officials provided statements about sirens that sometimes contradicted each other.

On Saturday, Russell, at a news conference with Spencer, said the city had received “a lot of questions about sirens, and we are looking into that.”

At another news conference with Spencer the next day, Russell said the “fire alarm office,” staffed 24 hours a day, was primarily responsible for activating the sirens. CEMA was the “secondary activation point.”

The CEMA office is small, Russell said, and works “closer to business hours unless the need arises.”

Russell also suggested at least some of the sirens sounded: “I have received reports from people that did hear it. I’ve heard from a lot of people that say they haven’t heard it.”

By Monday, Spencer acknowledged a "human failure" had occurred.

And at another press event on Tuesday, the mayor declined to say if she believed Russell misled the public.

“Your questions, absolutely, they’re valid," she said. "They deserve an answer. They will get one."

Several hours later, the mayor's office issued the release announcing Russell was placed on leave.

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