Wednesday, August 16, 2006 - Updated: 01:56 AM EST

WALPOLE -- The East Walpole Fire Station was closed this week after complaints of a bad smell in the building revealed extensive mold behind the second floor walls, Fire Chief Timothy Bailey said yesterday.
 
    "It’s closed temporarily," he said. "It was prompted by the guys, who started to notice an odor down there and started to complain about it."
 
    He said the station was shut down Thursday after inspections showed the firefighters’ training room had extensive moisture inside the walls.
 
    The building was renovated last year to return it to full-timeSept. 1, 2005. During renovations, a new air conditioning system was installed. That system caused moisture -- and mold -- to build up in the insulation behind second floor walls this summer.
 
    Bailey said the station was not in use last summer, making this year the first time the new air system has been tested.
 
    He said the insulation and mold are being removed this week, with Station Two in East Walpole slated to reopen next week. The three firefighters who staffed the station 24 hours a day have been reassigned downtown to Fire Station One, Bailey said.
 
    He said he does not yet know the cost of the work, though the expenses will likely be limited to materials -- such as sheet rock and wood -- for re-creating the affected walls. The town’s building maintenance department is performing much of the work.
 
    "So far, most of it has been kept in-house, with the exception of a couple of consultants we used to help pinpoint the problem. We also brought the contractors in that had done work on areas affected, to get their expertise. They came out as a courtesy," said Bailey, who said he does not believe the contractors who installed the HVAC system are to blame for the mold.
 
    Fire Station Two is likely more than 100 years old, he said. Some fire documents list its construction date as 1929, though there are photographs depicting the brick masonry structure in 1924.
 
    The East Walpole neighborhood has consistently logged the highest number of fire and rescue calls of any part of town. Bailey said the department has been able to sustain its response time to East Walpole despite the station closure, and has been able to use the fire engine and brush truck currently stored on the first floor of Station Two during the repairs.

http://www.dailynewstranscript.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=77286&format=text
 
 
 

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