Fire Station 2's Inadequacies noted in earlier inspections
By Joey Berlin
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
A number of the problems the city is now trying to address at Fire Station No. 2, including uneven settling and the development of mold, have been noted in inspections over the past several years.
Last week at their biweekly work session, city commissioners decided they would like to solicit bids for a study examining the costs of repairing Station 2 versus those of building an all-new station. The building’s other problems include inadequate space, a leaking roof resulting from building movement, an insufficient number of equipment bays and sleeping quarters considered to be outdated.
Fire Chief Jack Taylor said a structural engineer last looked at Station 2 in May 2004. He said each of the city commissioners have received a copy of the report that resulted. Structural problems were logged, but the building was deemed safe enough for operation.
“Certainly, the problems were noted with either heaving or settling or whatever it is that’s moving the walls and the floors and all of those things,” he said. “So, all of those, the movement of the building, the problems with the roof, everything like that was certainly noted.”
The city fire department found three violations at Station 2 during its annual inspection for 2007. Fire Marshall Tom Andrews said fire stations are inspected for any basic fire hazards in the same way as any other building considered larger than a one- or two-family dwelling. When violations are found, the norm is to allow 30 days to get them corrected before re-inspection.
Station 2’s last fire code inspection was on July 18, 2007. The violations found during that probe included a leak in the ceiling over an electrical plug-in strip, combustibles stored in the mechanical room and gas cans not stored in an approved cabinet.
“On that situation, the leaking roof itself is not, per se, a life safety violation,” he said. “The problem with the electrical underneath the leak, that was corrected or moved.”
Andrews said those issues were corrected, and there were no fire code violations at present that he was aware of.
During a tour of Station 2 last month, Capt. Rick Peck displayed an electronics panel sitting next to the landing point of a roof leak. Peck said the station’s roof is patched three to five times per year.
The Lyon County Health Department inspected the mold situation at Station 2 in July 2005 following an anonymous complaint. The county health department only inspects a building as a result of a complaint, Director of Environmental Health Ann Mayo said.
After the inspection, the health department issued 10 recommendations for the fire department.
“Basically we said that we’re not experts in mold identification, but that we believed that there was probably mold in the building, based on what we saw,” Mayo said. “We believed that we saw mold spores in the building, and we found it around ventilation ducts.”
Mayo, who was personally part of the inspection, recalled that the settling and cracking in the exterior of the building was letting mold in, and the construction of the ventilation system prevented the health department from getting in to see or clean the mold.
The health department’s recommendations included installing a dehumidifier to keep the building’s humidity between 40 and 60 percent and installing an electrostatic air filter.
Taylor said all the health department’s recommendations were followed.
“That mold that was visible to us was addressed, either through cleaning of air conditioning vents, removal and replacement of ceiling tiles, things like that,” he said. “Since then, other mold that has become exposed has been treated. So all of the mold that we know for a fact exists has been treated.”
The city’s pending solicitation of bids for a study on Station 2 will be its next step following Taylor’s evaluation of two potential locations last month for a new station. Taylor feels the process is taking place in an orderly fashion.
“I think that’s the direction that we were given, and I’m satisfied that we’re making progress to find out exactly what we need to do, and which avenue to pursue,” he said.