Fire Chief Mike Bucossi is 100-percent correct in all that he states in this article about fire stations that are old, unhealthy, and unsafe for personnel.
Not to take anything away from Chief Bucossi's story, but there are many fire stations across the U.S.A. that are also in deplorable conditions to one degree or another.
When I was employed by the City of Boston (Mass.) Fire Department, most of the 30-plus fire stations were already old and aging back in 1969 and only worse when I retired in 2001.
Many were very drafty, especially in the cold weather, and heating plants were almost continually running to try and keep up with the heat losses. Water leaks from rain and melting snow were common.
Old hot-water pipes were wrapped in asbestos as insulation. Many were torn, and cancer-causing asbestos floated all over the stations.
Black soot from fire-apparatus exhausts covered almost everything, including the food left sitting on our kitchen tables when we were responding to calls at mealtimes. It was bad enough that we inhaled smoke, gases, and soot at fire scenes - we ingested more soot when we came back to eat our food, now cold and covered with (invisible) diesel exhaust!
The corrective measures took years and years to happen. But the damage was done to our bodily systems, in the form of cancer and respiratory illnesses.
I live in a northwest Georgia community, where I had recently resigned after serving for three years. Most of the fire stations in this county show various signs of aging.
The central fire station, in one of the worst conditions of the 16 structures, is aged and should have been razed years ago. The roof leaks rain - so much that the drop-ceiling tiles become water-soaked and fall onto the fire apparatus, on the ambulance, on the floor, and onto the heads of unsuspecting EMS and firefighters.
Mold has been seen. A small “creek” flows from the rear to the front and out the front doors of the apparatus floor during rainstorms.
So what's the problem that has created this epidemic across the fire departments in the U.S.A.? Money availability? Sure it is.
The hidden factor is that the local government officials who hold onto the finances treat firefighters as second-class citizens. Those who tightly hold onto the budget money and care little to none about their EMS/firefighters - they are the problem.
Fire chiefs who care about their firefighters and EMS personnel, be they career or volunteer, will try to get the money to repair and to update their fire stations to provide healthy, safe work environments.
I feel for you, Chief Bucossi, and for your EMS/firefighters and wish you the best with this struggle to keep your people healthy and safe.