Firehouse Defects Detailed In Report

Even as D.C. firefighters and rescue workers rush to emergencies in the District, they have labored in stations with broken smoke detectors, asbestos materials, exposed electrical wiring and rodents, according to a critical report released yesterday.

Inspector General Charles J. Willoughby said inspectors "recorded significant deficiencies" in 31 of 33 fire stations and the fireboat facility in June. Two stations were not inspected because they were being renovated.

The inspectors recommended that fire officials immediately determine how many detectors are inoperable and repair them. Defective smoke detectors were found in work spaces and living quarters, including two sleeping areas, a storage room and a restroom.

In written responses to the inspector general, Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin said most of the conditions have been repaired or are scheduled to be fixed. He also wrote last week that additional resources are needed to address all of the problems detailed in the report. Yesterday, a fire department spokesman declined to answer questions about the scope of the repairs or to comment on the report.

The report's findings and the fire department's response will be addressed during an oversight hearing tomorrow by the D.C. Council's Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary. The committee's chairman, Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), said he was appalled by the inspection team's revelations.

The unannounced summer inspections were a follow-up to a 2002 report, in which the inspector general's office detailed similar maintenance problems.

In June, inspectors were surprised to find inoperable smoke detectors in fire stations, especially since the fire department sponsors a program to give out the devices to residents. Multiple areas of several stations didn't have smoke detectors.

Although the latest report emphasized that most fire department employees are trained to extinguish fires, it also noted that the lack of operating smoke detectors posed a risk overnight when the firefighters are sleeping.

Rubin, in a July letter, told the inspector general's office that the department had hired a contractor to assess fire-detection equipment and that a plan was in place to make repairs.

"Funding must be identified for some of the department's major repairs," wrote Rubin, who became chief this year. "The poor conditions noted in your office's report are a product of decades of fiscal problems. Bringing these facilities back up to standard is one of my highest priorities."

Willoughby's report also recommended that the fire department address asbestos problems at three firehouses: Station 5 at 3412 Dent Place NW; Station 18 at 414 Eighth St. SE; and Station 26 at 1340 Rhode Island Ave. NE. He gave the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services department 90 days to submit a progress report.

Rubin said that the department is monitoring asbestos-containing materials and plans to put an annual inspection program in place.

The inspector general's report, which runs more than 100 pages and has 140 color pictures, also detailed poor working conditions for the city's emergency personnel: toilets that don't provide privacy; showers that don't operate; bunkrooms with broken windows and leaking roofs; and stations with mice and mosquitoes.

In one case, inspectors found that two bay doors at Station 6 on New Jersey Avenue NW could not be opened for emergency vehicles to exit. One was welded shut. The employees had to park firetrucks and ambulances behind the doors and then maneuver the vehicles through tight spaces to get them out of the building.

In a statement, Mendelson said that more attention needs to be placed on working conditions for fire and emergency personnel.

"I plan to press Chief Rubin on the plans he has to fully address not only the physical conditions at the District's fire houses, but also the process in which maintenance requests are tracked and implemented," Mendelson wrote.