By Robert P. King
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
Copyright 2006 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Every day, firefighters from Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue’s Station 31 dealt with hazardous chemicals, suspected bombs and dangerous dive rescues.
Then, they’d return to a firehouse contaminated by mold.
Now, the station on Lake Worth Road near Greenacres is closed. The county is ripping out carpets and paneling, and the 27 employees are working out of temporary quarters. But the firefighters are still pressing the county to provide medical tests and notification for current and former employees.
“This is not an issue of us versus them - this is an issue of let’s do the right thing for our people,” said District Chief Chuck Lupo, chairman of an employees’ committee on the mold issue. “We feel like we haven’t been taken care of at this point.”
The county closed the station Aug. 3 after the employees presented a report documenting the mold problem, Fire Rescue spokesman Capt. Don Delucia said Saturday. That report — paid for by the union, Lupo said - found potentially toxic mold in rooms including the kitchen and a bedroom, according to a copy available on the station’s unofficial Web site.
A second study by a county-hired firm confirmed the presence of mold, though “not in any toxic quantity,” Delucia said. “To keep a clean environment, they elected to keep the station closed as a matter of principle.”
Meanwhile, Station 31’s rescue engine and truck are operating out of a station in Greenacres, and its special operations unit is based in Wellington. Delucia said the change doesn’t seem to have hampered response time.
The station, about 50 years old, suffered a roof leak, possibly from Hurricane Wilma, that could have allowed the mold to breed, Delucia said. But a statement from the employees requests “medical surveillance and appropriate follow-up” for workers going back at least 10 years.