MA Fire Chief: Town Endangering FFs with Unsafe HQs

PLYMOUTH, MA—You might as well set fire to 114 Sandwich St. as make any further repairs to the Plymouth Fire Department's headquarters, according to Fire Chief Ed Bradley.

Firefighters were forced from fire headquarters Monday after a crew working on a roof repair project rained mold, dust and debris into firefighter's living quarters and offices. Bradley put in for roof repairs to the headquarters back in 2009.

"This is the worst day in my 45-year career," Bradley told reporters Tuesday. "Firefighters at this station have been living in squalor."

RELATED: Falling Roof Debris Forces MA Firefighters Out of HQ

By not providing a sanitary and safe building to operate out of, the town is endangering the lives of those who are risking their lives to save others, he added. Bradley said firefighters are exposed to carcinogens, mold and mildew in the department's headquarters, which he said doesn't have a sprinkler system, adequate space or rooms to accommodate firefighters safely.

The town's health inspector declared the building uninhabitable after the roof debris incident Monday, forcing headquarters employees to work from remote stations, the town's emergency operations center and even their cars. After that, firefighters were originally moved to the West Plymouth Fire Station, giving Bradley a sleepless night as he feared increased response times for emergencies in the downtown area.

By Tuesday, firefighters were moved temporarily to Memorial Hall, awaiting the arrival of a trailer to work out of while the station building is cleaned up. Fire crews from Station One are currently working out of the trailer.

Bradley was shaking his head in disgust Wednesday as he related the saga of this and three other fire stations in town with leaking roofs and inadequate facilities for his people.

Built in 1978 on an existing foundation for Plymouth & Brockton Street Railway Company's repair garage and ticket office, a portion of the Sandwich Street headquarters dates to the 1920s and possibly earlier. The building was built on an existing foundation above an underground stream flowing from the high ground of Mount Pleasant and Whiting streets to the ocean.

"The water comes up through the ground and freely runs through the basement," Bradley said. "Pumps were installed to try to keep the basement as dry as possible; it's never completely dry. Those pumps run 24/7. They recently have been moving water faster than the piping can handle, causing flooding in the apparatus bays at Sandwich Street level. We have also had a number of raw sewerage backups and flows in the building."

In addition, the building is too small to accommodate this branch of the department. For safety's sake, firefighters are supposed to shed their gear and equipment in a segregated room from their living space, to prevent carcinogens from firefighting foam and related chemicals from coming into contact with them. That's not what's happening at the headquarters building, where firefighters work in the same rooms where they are taking off their gear and equipment, Bradley said.

In addition, leaking from the roof has bled down an entire wall, fueling mold that can impact respiration. Wiring that interfaces with the roof is a serious fire hazard and needs to be addressed, he said, as cleanup crews make the building habitable again.

The town is in the process of performing $500,000 in roof and wall repairs to the building and replacing a pump in the basement, but Bradley said it's a waste of taxpayer money. He believes the building should be razed and a new station constructed so firefighters can work in a safe environment. Even if the town dumps the estimated $10 million to conduct a full repair of the structure, it still won't be large enough to accommodate crews at the station, he said.

"The one place where they should be safe is in their own quarters; that should be their safe area," he said.

Facilities Manager Wayne Walkden went before the Select Board Tuesday night to bring the board up to date on a new software program he's implementing to track, prioritize and organize maintenance and repairs to the town's 32 buildings. He said approximately $35,000 is needed so he can conduct a code survey of the fire station headquarters to pinpoint exactly what changes, upgrades and repairs are needed to bring the building up to code.

Once this is in hand, he can draft a list of those tasks, he said, develop a budget and determine whether repairs to the building are worth it. If repairs and maintenance of a building weigh in at 50 percent or more of the value of the structure, Walkden said it may not be cost effective to make these fixes.

Ten months ago, Walkden went before the Select Board, noting that the Fire Department headquarters needs a building envelope and environmental evaluation, masonry as well as roof replacement; Fire Station 2, built in 1975, needs roof repairs, window and door replacements and parking and walkway improvements; Fire Station 3, in The Pinehills, built in 2001, needs roof and HVAC repairs and fire protection system upgrades; Fire Station 4, built in 1977, needs parking and walkway improvements, electrical upgrades and fire protection system upgrades; Fire Station 5 needs utilities upgrades, roof, window and door replacements; and Fire Station 6, built in 1996, needs parking and walkway improvements and roof, window and door replacements.

And, it was also 10 months ago that Town Manager Melissa Arrighi warned the select board about serious issues with the fire department headquarters, questioning pouring more money into repairs to the building. She suggested the possibility of constructing a new headquarters at 91 Long Pond Road, the former location of the water department. She stressed that the town could spend approximately $10 million to repair the existing station or $20 million on a new headquarters that will accommodate station crews.

Their was little appetite for such a project. A new North Plymouth Fire Station, two new high schools, a new town hall and a new senior center took precedence over the fire department's need for a new headquarters, and a number of residents have argued that the town can't afford another building project right now.

Bradley said he urged the town to repair the headquarters roof 10 years ago. Town meeting voted to fund the project in 2010, he said, but the facilities manager at the time wasn't able to pull the trigger on the project because he was overworked, managing not just the town's 32 buildings, but its fleet of vehicles. By the time the engineering had been done on the roof leak in 2013, the project was significantly more expensive, he said, and it got pushed further and further into the future.

At the Select Board's Tuesday night meeting, Walkden stressed that he needs more staffing to manage the town's maintenance needs more effectively, like an electrician and plumber in addition to the new heating and ventilation technician he said would benefit the town.

Walkden stressed that maintaining systems makes them last longer and saves money; waiting to make a roof repair like the one at the fire station is a recipe for major repairs down the road.

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