Fire station temporarily closes

A longtime water leak that resulted in damage and mold at Shawnee’s Fire Station No. 2, Bryan and Independence, has led to the station’s temporary closure for repair work.
However, fire department officials said response times to emergencies have been affected little, if any. Even though the station’s firefighters have been moved to other locations, the same number of firefighters are on duty and are responding to calls in that area.
Three Shawnee fire marshals still have offices and work in Station No. 2 during the daytime, but three firefighters normally staffed there for each 24-hour shift are now operating out of other stations as a precaution.
Deputy Fire Chief Dru Tischer said the station has had ongoing water leak issues since it opened in 1999. The structure, with a metal roof, was repaired again this summer, but the work apparently made the leaks worse, he said.
The leaking roof has caused some interior damage at the station, and some mold has formed in the walls, Tischer said. Most of the leaks and damaged areas are in the sleep quarters, where firefighters rest while working their 24-hour shifts.
Because of the musty smell and leaks, Shawnee Fire Chief Jimmy Gibson said he didn’t want crews sleeping in that room. He decided last month to temporarily move them to other stations.
“We were erring on the side of caution,” Gibson said. After the move, air quality testing was done at the station and the results, which came in last week, were normal.
However, firefighters aren’t returning to the station just yet. The new contractor has recommended crews not occupy the station and take a chance on disturbing any of the mold spores, Tischer said.
While on 24-hour shifts, firefighters live, eat and sleep at the station. So with the problems, the area doesn’t work well as a living facility, Tischer said. He said they want to take every precaution for the safety of the crew.
“We want to get the station open as quickly as possible,” Tischer said, “but we want to fix it and fix it right.”
Tischer said the new contractor has a background in dealing with metal roofs and believes the installation of the roof wasn’t done correctly, Tischer said.
On Wednesday, he said crews worked on a test area of the roof, removing some old fixes and making some new roof repairs, then testing it with water. It appears the fix worked, so Tischer said he is awaiting a cost estimate to repair the entire roof, along with a time frame for the project.
Once the leaky roof is fixed, Tischer said they’ll use a mold removal service to replace sheetrock, carpet and clean the interior of the station. Tischer said he’ll meet with those officials today to begin that estimate process, but the inside repair work won’t begin until the roofers give the OK.
Tischer said the department has already budgeted for the sheetrock and interior repairs; any roof repairs will come from the capital improvements budget.
With the temporary closure of the station, one firefighter has joined seven firefighters on duty at Station No. 1 at city hall, and two others from Station No. 2 are temporarily stationed at Station No. 3 at MacArthur and Oklahoma Streets. That smaller station normally houses four crews. An engine and grass rig are assigned to Station No. 2, and Tischer said the engine has been moved with the crew to Station 3.
Station No. 2 typically has a low volume of emergency calls compared to the others, but Tischer said crews are doing a good job with their response times while working from other stations.
Gibson said anyone within a short distance of Station No. 2 may see an additional one- or two-minute response time from Station No. 1 or 3, but Tischer said battalion chiefs are doing a good job at being aware of that area and sending the closest crews. At any time, crews from any station can be on service calls or training at other locations, Tischer said, so they respond from wherever they are.
Anyone with questions about Station No. 2 can call 878-1671.
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Kim Morava may be reached at 214-3962.