THE TOWN OF MILTON, NEW HAMPSHIRE, WAS ORDERED BY THE STATE back on February 6th to vacate its Fire-Rescue building within 15 working days.

Firgeezer reported the situation to you HERE.

Milton FD photo

Their old fire/rescue station, which began its life as a horse barn in 1830, was condemned.  When the deadline arrived at noon on the 22nd, they moved all their belongings and office supplies into a work trailer that has been set up alongside the old building.  They are permitted to continue storing the vehicles (they have 9 of them) in the old building and can enter it only to start up a truck and drive it out.

But the trailer is so small and uncomfortable that the FF’s have no room to move around or congregate.  And the facilities are so poor that they are ready to hang it up.  While they are running more calls than ever before, Fire Chief Andy Lucier says that morale is at an all-time low.

The Foster’s Daily Democrat reports:

In the makeshift trailer headquarters, this will no longer by physically possible — the total area is 350 square feet, but much of this space has to be taken up with filing cabinets containing records, a dispatch area, a table for report writing, a computer and Internet hook-up, and a small office area. This leaves room for perhaps four chairs, estimated Lucier, as he eyed the space last week, as plumbers were trying to defrost water pipes and a toilet — but scarcely room for a crew coming back in the middle of the night after dealing with a nasty auto accident or a house fire.

 
Fire Chief Andy Lucier makes a final dispatch shortly before the vacate deadline last Friday.
(Jim Nolan / Times photo)

“Morale in the whole department is a problem. Everyone is discouraged,” said Lucier.  Last year an article on the town warrant seeking to raise $950,000 for a new station was rejected by voters, with 451 opposed and 350 in favor. It would have required a 60 percent majority (481 in favor) to pass.  The members of the department feel that they are getting no support at all from the community.

The Foster’s Daily Democrat tells the whole story and even more problems that are possibly dooming the FD’s future HERE.

Milton Fire - Rescue Dept. WEBSITE.

IN MILTON, NEW HAMPSHIRE, THE STATE HAS given the town 15 working days to remove all employees from the Milton Fire-Rescue building due to safety issues.

Originally, the state Dept. of Labor, Inspection Division, had given them 5 days to vacate, but the town administrator convinced them that it just wasn’t possible and negotiated a compromise of 15 days.

Milton FD photo

The state claims that emissions from the fire trucks were not being properly expelled and were a safety hazard to the firefighters.  They also claimed that the old building, which was originally a horse barn, might have horse manure embedded in the insulation.  They also said that the paint inside might have lead in it.

The building was condemned last May by the State Fire Marshal, but the town was given a 1-year variance to give them time to bring it up to code.  However the town council declined to take that measure because of the cost in doing so.

The town is trying to arrange for a mobile home to be located nearby to provide shelter and amenities for the firefighters.

The Foster’s Daily Democrat provides the full story including the town’s proposed solutions HERE.

Firegeezer adds:  Obviously there’s something more to this story that isn’t being said out loud.  When has a firehouse been condemned because the exhausts weren’t ventilated?  And to load up the complaint with a bunch of “maybe’s” and “might be’s” that haven’t been determined indicates to me that this is just being used as a tool to settle a different problem.  Hmmm.

Milton Fire-Rescue Dept. website is HERE.

IN ROTHESAY, NEW BRUNSWICK, AN OUT-OF-CONTROL CAR smashed through one of the bay doors of the local firehouse on Tuesday.

It is believed that the driver suffered some sort of medical emergency while driving which cause him to crash.  (Perhaps he was attempting to get to the firehouse for help? … FG)

The fire lieutenant on duty at the time said, “I think we’re lucky to be alive.  We heard a noise and nobody knew what it was. There was just a shower of glass and debris and when dust settled there was a car sitting in our fire station.”

The car bounced off three trucks and came to rest wedged between one of the engines and a pillar.

Rothesay Regional FD photo

The Daily Gleaner has the STORY.
Rothesay Regional FD WEBSITE.

Firegeezer notes:  Fortunately the car didn’t strike their 1924 Ford chemical wagon.

RRFD photo

THE BEIJING (PEKING) OLYMPICS COMMITTEE has announced that the city is building and will put into service an additional 34 fire stations before the start of this year’s Olympic Games.

Xinjua News Service is reporting (HERE) that the increased number of stations is directly tied to providing the maximum of fire protection to the Olympic venues.

Once all the stations are in service, the FD will be able to arrive at any of the stadiums and arenas within two minutes after receiving the call.

A Beijing fire station

The article doesn’t say if any of the stations will remain in service after the event is finished.  Firegeezer suspects that most, if not all of the fire stations are only temporary.

A CATAWBA COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA, FIRE DEPARTMENT is taking an aggressive approach to the increase of calls. 

The Sherrills Ford - Terrell Vol. FD has seen a rise in emergency calls of 20% annually and have now hired six full-time firefighters and three administrative people.

They are now promising a 24-hour, 7-day coverage from their station along with the usual response of its 60 volunteer members.

The Charlotte Observer has the STORY.
Sherrills Ford - Terrell FD WEBSITE.

Firegeezer notes:  While the article says they hired 6, the website states 16.  Also, neither tells how the FD is funded.  If anybody from Catawba County knows, please post a comment.  Thank you.

AS WE REPORTED HERE LAST WEEK, the Arlington, Massachusetts, Fire Department has begun operating from their new Station 3.  It has become infamous because of the Fire Chief’s decision to remove the sprinkler system from the plans because it takes up too much space and that they:  “….are strictly a life saving apparatus meant to control the fire, to help people escape a burning building…but the sprinklers themselves aren’t meant to put out fire.”

The dry day room.
Arlington Advocate photo

Our friends at the Arlington Advocate have come out with still another story on the new firehouse where they explain the ramifications of taking the sprinklers out of the final design.  It seems the basement level is still sealed off and unusable because the exit doors aren’t placed properly for an unsprinklered building.

And they have brought forward still one more reason why the sprinklers couldn’t be installed.  The architect claims that there isn’t enough “water pressure” to supply the sprinklers for this building of less than 7,500 sq. ft.  (jockey pump, anyone?…ed.).

But not all problems have been resolved.  The Town’s Building Committee has been having meetings since February trying to decide whether the station’s radio antenna should be mounted on the roof, the side of the building, or on a free-standing tower.  After 10 months of meetings, they’re still considering it.

Read the latest from the Advocate HERE.

THE ARLINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS, FIREHOUSE THAT WAS declared a “sprinkler-free zone” by the Fire Chief was finally given its occupancy permit on Monday.  The three (!) firefighters began operating from the station on Thursday.

You may recall the Firegeezer Morning Lineup column HERE reporting on Chief McEwen removing the sprinkler system from the plans because, among other things, it took too much space.

Now that they’re in the station, everybody is all smiles.  And while the taxpayers of Arlington will laud Chief McEwen for saving them $54,000, the rest of the world will always remember him for this piece of wisdom:

“What most people don’t understand is, sprinklers aren’t meant to put out the fire,” McEwen said. “They are strictly a life saving apparatus meant to control the fire, to help people escape a burning building…but the sprinklers themselves aren’t meant to put out fire, they are meant to control it to give people time to escape.”

The Advocate article from yesterday covering the station opening is HERE.

BACK IN 2002, SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, VOTERS approved a $159 million bond issue to build new and upgrade other police and fire stations in the city.

One of those fire stations needing renovation is Fire Station #2, currently the oldest firehouse still being used by the FD.  It was built 60 years ago and expanded in the 1980’s.  It is also the city’s busiest fire station, running 4,500 calls annually.  But by waiting so long to begin some of the projects, the costs have increased by $6.8 million overall.

In order to be able to complete the modernizations, the Mayor has proposed reducing the spending levels in some projects, including Station #2.  Now instead of spending $9.5 million on #2, the city staff wants to get by with only $7.1 million.

Enter the city councilwoman who represents the district where the fire station is located.  Since it serves a largely-hispanic section of the city, she wants to get in the mud and play the race card in what is no doubt a grandstanding attempt to garner votes.  Never mind that the city is also building a brand new fire station in the same area and is nearly completed.

The mud-fight is just getting started and the San Jose Mercury News brings you up to speed with the latest HERE.

To view images of the station over the years, click on the thumbnails:

Photos courtesy Santa Clara County Fire Dept.
For more Station #2 history click HERE.

HARDLY A DAY GOES BY without learning about still another desperate scheme to fund the emergency services in UK.  For some reason the fire and ambulance departments are constantly unable to meet budget, but the citizens are already taxed to the max.  So this leads to various, nefarious plans to raise monies in other ways.

Today’s proposal comes from Wales where the South Wales Fire Authority wants to sell off all the land around one of their fire stations.  The Whitchurch station serves an area of 65,700 population along with three major hospitals, a university and some industrial areas.  But since they feel that all you really need is the station and not all that valuable land that it sits on, the fire officials want to sell it.

Whitchurch Fire Station

The citizens are alarmed, of course.  They believe that this is the precursor to closing the station altogether.

Read about this new citizen-government conflict in the South Wales Echo HERE.
South Wales Fire and Rescue Service WEBSITE.

A MONTGOMERY COUNTY, KENTUCKY FIRE STATION suffered a major fire at 6 am this morning.  Shortly after returning to quarters after a working house fire during the night, the duty crew noticed some smoke in the ceiling area and discovered a fire going in the attic area of the building.

They managed to get all the equipment out of the firehouse and called for assistance.  There was sufficient damage in the roof area that they expect to have to rebuild the structure.

Lexington Channel 18 has the STORY and VIDEO.

THE LOTHIAN AND BORDERS FIRE BRIGADE in Scotland was supposed to make a decision on implementing what they call a Service Improvement Plan last Friday.

But the “Service Improvement” included shutting down two fire stations, curtailing night and weekend coverage at a third station, and eliminating 20 firefighter positions.

The “improvement” was put on hold for two weeks in order to consider a counter-proposal by the West Lothians town Council whose leader said:  “It makes no sense to me to cut the fire service here when this is an area with a growing population and a growing business community.”

The Scotsman reports the STORY.
Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue WEBSITE.

A CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING ON THE foundations for a new firehouse accidentally started a brush fire Wednesday.  The new station is outside Salt Lake City, Utah and the workers were grinding rebar for the concrete foundation.  Sparks from the grinder flew over into some scrub area and quickly started a 29-acre brush fire that required 50 firefighters and two aircraft to control it.

Read the full story HERE.