October 24, 2002

Fire station to be fixed, not rebuilt

      A White River Township fire station damaged in the Sept. 20 tornado likely will be repaired instead of razed and rebuilt.  Estimates show that Station 52, at Fairview Road and State Road 135, sustained about $215,000 of damage during the storm. That amount of damage — although significant — isn’t enough to qualify the fire protection district for federal funds to rebuild.  Instead, Federal Emergency Management Agency funds likely will pay the deductible on the insurance policy for the building. The department also likely will recoup some overtime pay and storm debris cleanup costs from the agency.  The fire department tallied $15,000 in wages and machinery costs during the Friday the storm hit and the following weekend.  About 75 percent of those costs should be reimbursed by FEMA.  During a typical Friday-Saturday-Sunday period, the department spends $3,000 in routine expenses, fire Chief Mike Tibbetts said.  The storm ripped bricks away from the building and toppled an antenna tower. The building shifted, drywall separated and roof rafters were pulled out. The station’s office, truck bay, bunkroom and kitchen all were damaged. Tibbetts and the firefighters had thought the building was damaged so severely that the structure would be torn down and rebuilt — and FEMA funds would pay for it.  To qualify for such funds, 50 percent of the building’s insured value must be damaged. The station, built in 1991, is insured for $550,000.  Just $60,000 more in damages would have meant the fire station could be torn down and rebuilt.  Instead, repairs will be made to the existing structure.  Tibbetts is grateful no one was injured in the building during the tornado and that the only firefighting equipment damaged was when a taillight broke on a 3-year-old aerial truck when a bay door was blown into the back of it.  But days after the storm, Tibbetts said, “I don’t want to sink lots of money into it and then run into lots of problems down the road.”  The station was built cheaply in 1991, Tibbetts said, because the fire protection district simply didn’t have lots of money to put into it. The station wasn’t built the way it should have been to last 35 to 40 years, he said.  After patching damage from a 1996 severe storm, the station finally got a new roof just two weeks before the September tornado.  Tibbetts is hoping the repairs will make the building stronger than ever.  “We’re going to strengthen this building so what happened this time won’t happen again,” he said, referring to structural suggestions an engineer has made.  Firefighters don’t know when the repairs will be started or when they can set up shop again at their northernmost station.  White River firefighters from Station 52 are operating out of a Greenwood Fire Department station on Fry Road. While the temporary system is working out and Greenwood has been very giving, Tibbetts said the department is eager to move back home.  “We’re just happy to be alive, I think,” Tibbetts said.  Items such as kitchen supplies, chairs, beds and workout equipment are being stored off-site in the interim.  The newest fire station, at State Road 37 and Smith Valley Road, and a station on Runyon Road were not damaged.  (Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal)

 

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