Fire Station 2's Inadequacies noted in earlier inspections

[Guest guest]

Fire Station 2's Inadequacies noted in earlier inspections

Emporia Gazette - Emporia,KS*

By Berlin

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

http://www.emporiagazette.com/news/2008/jan/16/fire_station_2s_inadeq

uacies_noted_earlier_inspect/

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equipment bays and sleeping quarters considered to be outdated.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 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 s 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. "

s 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.

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 's evaluation of two potential

locations last month for a new station. 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.