Chula Vista fire station 9 is now deemed operational after a temporary 48-hour closure this past weekend.
The two-day closure was due in part to a broken sewer line in the station, soaking the dorms where firefighters sleep, the living quarters and other areas of the building.
Prior to that the station at 266 E. Oneida St. had a flea and bug infestation that has now been taken care of, said
Darrell Roberts, president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 2180.
Services were disrupted because of the closure on Oct. 1 and 2, and emergency calls were rerouted to fire station 3 at 1410 Brandywine Ave., a station nearly two miles away.
“It disappoints me as a chief that we had to disrupt services to the area,” said department chief Jim Geering. “We restored the services, thanks to the cooperation of our employees who are living under conditions that are essentially camping conditions.”
Firefighters are now housed and operating out of trailers staged in the back parking lot behind the fire station while the firehouse remains closed.
“The facility is actually closed because when they went in there to do repair work (for the sewage), they found asbestos in the station,” Roberts said. “So now it is a known asbestos facility which wasn’t the case prior to that. This is ultimately why we closed the station.”
Geering said the firehouse is closed out of “an abundance of caution” and said it remains closed until the inside is made suitable for all employees.
Geering said asbestos was not found in the swab or air samples, only in bulk materials from samples of the carpet and wall.
Geering said it is not known when the building will open.
Roberts said that working out of trailers affects response times for fire personnel.
He said response times are affected because firefighters are not in the station and do not receive the proper notification of emergency calls through an alerting system in the station.
Geering said firefighters are using pagers for emergency calls, which has been a challenge.
“There has been at least one instance where one of the pagers didn’t work,” he said. “But the pagers that are carried by the other firefighters did work so there wasn’t a delay.”
Roberts added that firefighters have no ability to write mandated reports because they do not have computer access in the trailers.
“It has a definite negative impact to our folks but the community is the biggest concern,” he said.
Geering admits having firefighters working out of trailers is not an ideal situation.
“The accommodations are poor if that,” he said. They’re not good.”
Roberts said there are major concerns with this station and with three of the city’s nine fire stations. The oldest station at 447 F St is also in dire need of repairs such as termite damage, does not have room to fit large water apparatuses.
Councilwoman Pat Aguilar toured Fire Station 9 this week and said the issues there are serious.
“I’m becoming more and more alarmed about the lack of facilities for our fire department,” she said. “This is a huge problem. The fire station is closed so that has a big impact on the community.”
Aguilar said she has spoken with her fellow council members and city manager to discuss how to fix the situation.
“It’s been going on for years since I’ve been on council and we’ve always kept things going with these Band-Aid patches but now we’ve hit an artery and it is time we take some urgent action,” she said.
Aguilar said one way of addressing the situation is asking voters to pass a half-cent, sales-tax measure in November that is estimated to bring in $15 million a year to the city. Aguilar also said she would like to see a contingency plan in place in case the measure fails.
Geering agreed that the sales-tax measure would help as it is said to bring in $48 million earmarked for the fire department, which will be used to rebuild three fire stations including station 9.
