SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : County Must Fix Up Firehouse, City Says

City officials say that it is the county’s responsibility to bring up to earthquake standards an old county firehouse in which exercise programs for older residents are held.

The fire station was one of seven county buildings identified as potentially hazardous during an earthquake in a study by county building officials made public last week.

On Monday, Elaine Martinez, the building and safety official for San Juan Capistrano, said she planned to inspect the site this week and that the city planned to retrofit the building to bring it up to current earthquake codes.

On Tuesday, however, San Juan Capistrano Assistant City Manager George Scarborough said the building is the responsibility of county officials. The city leases the building for a few programs and has been negotiating with the county to buy it, but no deal has been struck, Scarborough said.

He added, however, that the building will be brought up to code by either the city or the county. Scarborough also said that the building does not house the city’s nutrition program for the elderly, as first reported.

The county’s study was done in response to a state law passed several years ago that ordered all localities to identify “unreinforced masonry structures” by January, 1990. Other public buildings listed as potentially hazardous include five fire stations still in use and a building in downtown Santa Ana used by county maintenance crews.