INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Instead of presenting the expected action plan to get firefighters out of water-damaged stations this week and to expedite repairs, county staff and legal counsel Tuesday piled on the bureaucratic red tape.
Bringing in modular housing to evacuate firefighters from Station 1 on Old Dixie Highway and Station 7 out west on State Road 60 is rife with complexities, said Emergency Services Director John King. The County is not anywhere near ready to implement temporary housing.
First there’s finding the proper location, on fire station property or nearby. Then there’s obtaining the structures and getting utilities run to the site and hooked up.
“It’s not just a drop-ship of a modular unit,” King said.
Workers comp attorney Mark Hill said the firefighters and the county have been wrestling over the scope of the inspection since December, but that both sets of mold experts are scheduled to take the needed samples on March 31. The process should take two or maybe three days to test four stations.
Commissioner Peter O’Bryan expressed his dismay that it took the firefighters’ attorney Geoff Bickler 40 days to reply to the county with a proposed scope of the inspections.
That scope, which was received in January, included testing not only for mold, but for other contamination and also for bed bugs. The matter ended up in the courts, which ordered the inspections be limited to mold at this time, as mold exposure was the main complaint in the workers’ compensation claims.
Nine firefighters so far have tested positive for mycotoxins in their blood, which are allegedly linked to some form of toxic mold exposure.
The tests were conducted by Sebastian physician Dr. Deepti Sadhwani, sent away to a specialized laboratory and analyzed by a former expert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The firefighters’ union paid the $1,400 per test fee for its members.
While the legal wrangling and court proceedings have lingered on, firefighters are still living and working inside the suspect buildings.
Meanwhile, Hill said the county’s hands were and still are tied in remediating the mold because county officials were bound to “preserve the evidence” at the stations.
County Administrator Joe Baird told commissioners that the county hired a company to conduct preliminary testing of the air quality in the stations back in September and told them they “should read the report.”
Firefighters’ union President John O’Connor reminded the Board and staff that the firefighters have been complaining about roof leaks at the stations since 2006, but that it took “300 taxpayers in the room” during last week’s impasse hearing to get any sense of urgency in the matter.
“Our first priority is to get them (firefighters) out of the buildings as soon as possible,” O’Connor said.
Various county department heads explained that they’re working on the modular units for Station 1 and Station 7 as the renovations needed there are quite extensive, but that finishing repairs on Station 10 and Station 11 would actually happen quicker than the county could scramble modular housing together.
Station 7 might be bulldozed and relocated altogether. The Board has not decided whether to rebuild in place or find another site.
Commissioner Wesley Davis expressed his growing impatience with the process. “There’s nothing to hide here, let’s get this done,” he said.
Commissioner Tim Zorc urged staff to have a plan ready to execute in 48 or 72 hours should tests come back positive for mold in any of the four stations being tested. That proposal did not gain traction to be made into a formal motion by the Board.
“This is not quick enough, but I don’t know how to make it any quicker,” Zorc said.
No vote was taken. No firm deadline was given for evacuating firefighters or for completing needed repairs and remediation.
It is unclear what rights the firefighters or their union may have to protect themselves from exposure to the mold conditions while the county waits for testing and considers various courses of action.
King said he would be willing to provide updates to the Board on the progress.
