What started out as a $1,500 job to install a new carpet at the Girdwood Fire Station has increased to more than three times that cost, due to the discovery of asbestos beneath the carpet, mold behind the firehouse walls, and a water leak in the kitchen. “It’s a haz-mat thing,” said Fire Chief Bill Chadwick about the asbestos clean-up. “It’s getting a complete asbestos remediation.”
The Fire Station was originally built in 1978, and an addition was built in 2000. It’s the older portion of the station where the asbestos was found.
“Even though there were no particles floating about, because it is a government building, they had to bring in the (hazardous materials) team to remove it,” said Chadwick.
The mold inside the walls will be removed by simply replacing the sheetrock.
On top of the asbestos and mold contamination, a problem was found in the kitchen as well.
“We found an area where there is a massive leak,” Chadwick said. “It rotted all the kitchen Cabinets.”
“For the removal of the asbestos, the replacement of the sheetrock, the new carpet and the new kitchen, the cost is probably going to be in the neighborhood of $50,000 to $60,000,” Chadwick said.
The interdepartmental charges that the Girdwood Fire Department pays to the municipality should cover the asbestos and mold removal.
“The service area pays an astronomical amount every year, around $74,000,” Chadwick said. “That takes care of the station. It’s going to take some pushing to get it done though”
The department is now seeking donated items that include kitchen appliances and cabinetry, or any other support that can be offered to help with the deficient kitchen. It is a kitchen the department uses to provide thanksgiving dinners for those who don’t have family to spend the holiday with, and it’s used by local chapters of the Lions and Rotary clubs to make holiday food baskets for those in need.
Until the asbestos and mold removal can be completed, firefighters with the Girdwood Fire Department do not have a room to dress in, which is “a real safety problem,” Chadwick said. “The guys are using porter potties outside.”
Among the quintessential needs of the Girdwood Fire Department is also a ladder truck.
“We’ve been trying to get a ladder truck down here for the better part of 15 years,” Chadwick said”
They have three pumper/tanker trucks, built to supply water at extreme rates, dousing any fire within their waters reach. They have a Chevy Suburban for a mobile command unit and an ambulance for emergency response. They do not, however, have a ladder truck, which is a necessity where any work above the height of a truck is to be done.
“The biggest advantage to having one is to keep our fire insurance rates low,” Chadwick said. “They keep building bigger buildings here (in Girdwood); if we don’t have ladders to get on roofs then it affects our fire rating, and everybody’s insurance will go up.”
Not only are the fire rating and property owner’s fire insurance rates important, but the safety of individuals that are in situations needing a ladder truck.
One such incident occurred on Tuesday, Oct. 23 in Bird Creek. Chugiak resident, Dustin Crawford, fell while free-climbing. Girdwood’s emergency medical crews were first on the scene along side the Alaska State Troopers. But without a ladder truck to reach the ledge where Crawford lay 45 feet above the ground, they had to wait for an Anchorage emergency medical crew to arrive with their ladder truck.
“It’s in everyone’s best interest,” Chadwick said.