AARON LEO aleo@ctpost.com
Article Last Updated: 12/26/2007 12:01:57 AM EST
BRIDGEPORT — Something was wrong with the fire station on Ocean Terrace, forcing it to be closed for repairs in early December.
But no one knew just how bad it was.
Now that the station's floor is being dug up to allow excavation of up to 8 feet, the real problem is evident — and it's also becoming clear that completing the repairs will be neither quick nor cheap.
"The floor started collapsing," said City Councilman Robert Curwen, D-138. "All the pipes underneath it have caved in also. It is an emergency."
The repair bill could balloon to $500,000 and could take at least three or four months to fix, said Curwen, who co-chairs the council's Budget and Appropriations Committee. The panel has scheduled a special meeting Thursday to discuss the bonding request The session starts at 6 p.m. in City Hall.
"We've been working on trying to secure some bonding money for nine months," Curwen said.
Two fire companies based on Ocean Terrace — Engine 7 and Ladder 11 — are now quartered at the Wood Avenue station, more than a mile to the east. They are the first-responders to the city's West End and Black Rock areas.
Both Curwen and Fire Chief Brian Rooney concede moving the Ocean Terrace fire crews to Wood Avenue adds a small amount to the response time.
Response to fires in that section have been an issue since a Dec. 7 fire claimed three lives at 2345 Fairfield Ave., a home three-tenths of a mile from the closed Ocean Terrace firehouse. It took about seven minutes for firefighters from Wood Avenue to arrive at the fire scene — three more than fire officials' stated goal of a four-minute average response to any fire in the city.
But the fire was fast moving, Rooney said, and he is not sure whether a shorter response time would have changed the tragic outcome.
The blaze caused the floor to collapse beneath Arturo Iselo, 29, his wife, Anayelo Hernandez, 31, and the couple's 1-year-old son, Omar, who were huddled in a second-floor room of the multi-family house. Two other multi-family houses were heavily damaged by the fire, displacing 22 people.
"The fire chief has assured us that the coverage is there," Curwen said, while acknowledging that response may be a minute or two longer with the closure of the station.
Rooney has also said it would be problematic, especially in the winter, to erect temporary firefighter housing and a garage for Engine 7 and Ladder 11 on Ocean Terrace, as some have suggested.
But that's among the things that Curwen asked for in a recent letter to state Rep. Robert T. Keeley, D-Bridgeport.
Keeley said he would ask Gov. M. Jodi Rell, Robert L. Genuario, secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, and House Speaker James A. Amann, D-Milford, for help to get money for the Ocean Terrace repairs.
"I'm trying to be Santa Claus and bring the money back," he said.
Amann wants to see the firehouse for himself, Keeley added.
The city has paid about $75,000 from its contingency fund for the repairs so far, Curwen noted. The fund now has about $400,000.