A fire station in crisis

BY NADINE ARMSTRONG

The Hants Journal

NovaNewsNow.com

There are so many problems with the Brooklyn Fire Station, it’s hard to know where to begin.

The 40-year-old station is literally crumbling down and all the department can do is watch and hope funding soon becomes available for a new facility.

“The public doesn’t understand what we’re facing; it’s a crisis situation,” said Fire Chief Mark Dearman. “We've had to start selling off our services.”

He pointed out that what people see when they attend a function at the hall is a far cry from reality. “We try to keep what the public uses up-to-date,” he said. “The kitchen is pretty much up to snuff, but the wiring hasn’t been updated since the 1940s. The washrooms aren’t accessible; you can get into the building by the ramp, but then can’t use the washrooms. And the furnace is as old as I am,” Dearman said.

Some members of the public did experience first-hand just how badly the roof leaks when a portion of the ceiling crashed down during a dance last summer. “Fortunately, it was a small crowd and no one was hurt, but what it does do is set us up for a good liability suit,” Dearman said.

Conditions are tight

However, those are minor details compared with what firefighters face when called to duty. First, they need to navigate the steep, narrow stairs down to the basement where they gear up in the unisex gear room.

“One-third of our volunteers are women and it’s no fun seeing someone in their underwear,” Dearman said. To get trucks out of the cramped bay is another challenge, and “it's a good thing we have some good drivers,” he said.

When the bay was built originally, fire trucks were considerably smaller, but now conditions are tight. According to National Fire Protection standards, the Brooklyn bay has room to house only two trucks, not the five they squeeze in now. As it is, the emergency response vehicle sits outside year-round.

“You have to boost it in the morning and clear it of snow; you really can’t use it,” Dearman said. One of the station’s pumpers is housed at the Rawdon station due to lack of space.

The older 1976 tanker is for sale because the department can no longer afford the $2,000 in insurance. Dearman said that would leave firefighters with only one tanker onsite during a fire.

“We’re dropping our water capacity and will have to wait for mutual aid to haul water,” he said. “We just can’t afford to keep them all going.”

No shortage of water

Ironically, in another respect, there’s no shortage of water at the Brooklyn Station. It runs down walls, through ceilings, soaks into gear and equipment and collects in the electrical room, where it’s diverted outside the truck bay.

Water damage is apparent throughout the building, from dark spots all over the ceilings to the crumbling concrete walls. “It’s no fun to come into the electrical room to switch over the generator during a storm and be standing in water,” Dearman said.

There were times in the past when water levels in the bay were halfway up the truck tires, he said. Despite having a drain installed 10 years ago to deal with runoff, the slope of the driveway does little to deter build-up. “ It just runs down and freezes; it’s nothing but a sheet of ice.”

This makes getting trucks in and out a challenge when time is of the essence. Dearman said there have been a few incidents of trucks skidding into the wall of the bay on the way back from a call.

May have to shut down

Volunteers who already spend most of their free time training at the station are frustrated with the constant need for repairs, said department president Max Pye.

“People don't realize these guys are here three nights a week and weekends.” The department won the Provincial Extraction Competition earlier last year, but it can't afford to send members to compete at the Nationals, which he says is “just not good for morale.”

The Brooklyn Station lost four of its members recently and Dearman, whose position as chief is also voluntary, said it’s likely due to the demands outside of fighting fires.

“We have to fundraise so much it’s to the point we’re saturated down here every weekend trying to keep the stations going. I’m getting sick and tired of it. We’re getting to the point now we may have to shut down. That has crept into our minds.”

In 2007, a feasibility study concluded that building a new station was a better option than to try and expand or repair the current one. “This goes beyond repairs. No matter what we do it’s still going to be an old building,” Dearman said.

Currently, the cost of constant repairs comes out of the department’s operating budget, which he says takes away from money for equipment, trucks and training.

Suffering across the board

Dearman said departments are suffering across the board and that very few actually meet national standards. “We all support each other; it’s not just our little area. But they’re not going to shut us down because we’re providing an essential service.”

The department has been working closely with the municipality to come up with funding options for a new station. West Hants Municipal Warden Richard Dauphinee said he empathizes with the situation.

“They’ve identified the need, we’ve identified the need and they have a major problem. We all understand that, but we’re not talking thousands of dollars, we’re talking millions.”

And no one at this point knows where those millions will come from. “There’s no infrastructure money for fire departments. We’re just looking into where the funding is going to come from and then how much the municipality would need to kick in. There are still a lot of questions unanswered,” Dauphinee said.

Councillor Shirley Pineo chairs the Fire Advisory Committee and although she hasn't visited the station recently, she's not surprised by the deterioration. “I haven't been over there for a year or more so I'm going by what the chief has told me, but it doesn't sound good.”

Pineo agrees that to repair the station would be sending good money after bad. “It used to be an old schoolhouse and I think the building has lived its full life. It has to be replaced.”

Dauphinee said it would be great to find a benefactor in the community willing to make a contribution. He said although progress takes time, the Brooklyn Department has been great to work with and he hopes council will be able to vote on a recommendation in the near future.

Dearman said waiting is the hardest part. “If we knew something was going to happen we could work with it. If not, they’re going to have to find other avenues for fire protection.

“It’s a basically an apple pie situation,” Pye said. “Everyone likes apple pie, but who will be the one to make it?”