Fire Crew Finds Station 54 a Tight Fit : Camarillo: The aging but busy facility is deteriorating. Budget problems stand in the way of plans to move to a new location.

When female firefighters work out of Ventura County Fire Station 54 in Camarillo, they have to post signs on the lavatory door saying, “Female in Use” because there is only one bathroom.

The walls of the Ventura Boulevard station, built more than 50 years ago, have deteriorated so much that mosquitoes fly in through a long, vertical crack in the fire investigator’s room.

And the pipes are so old that fire officials have to call a plumber to unclog them at least twice a year.

“Like anything with government, it just takes money to keep up with this stuff,” Fire Capt. Ron Topolinski said.

And like all Ventura County agencies, the county Fire Department has had its budget cut this year, losing $3.6 million from a $44.6-million spending plan. As a result, a 1.4-acre parcel on Pickwick Drive, slated to be the site for a replacement station in Camarillo, will remain vacant for another year--and maybe longer.

Of the county’s 31 fire stations, “this is the one that has the most operational problems,” Fire Chief George Lund said. Also, he said, “it’s one of the busiest stations in the county.”

The district purchased the parcel in April with $740,000 in developer fees. But the budget cut eliminated the $1.2 million needed to build the new facility. So firefighters will continue to work and sleep in a building whose attic was closed off a year ago because of asbestos.

Fire Capt. John Moland has worked at Station 54 since 1978.

“I was told at that time that we were getting a new station,” Moland said. “It’s been put on the back burner many, many, many times. We are disappointed.”

In addition to all the other problems, the building has become unsuitable for modern firefighting equipment.

The garage ceiling is only 8 1/2 feet above ground, nearly 3 feet short of the height needed to accommodate modern fire engines, fire Investigator Bill Hager said. When the district purchased a new engine about four years ago, it had to be custom-made with its lights in front instead of on top.

And the building’s location in the middle of a block makes it difficult for vehicles to safely pull out onto busy Ventura Boulevard.

Other county fire stations have also been affected by the budget cuts. For instance, staffing for Station 50 at the Camarillo Airport is being reduced, and its ladder truck was retired Sunday for lack of staff.

The ladder truck was to have been moved to Station 54. Instead, a two-person rescue crew and truck from Station 23 in Ojai will be moved to Station 54.

But because the building lacks space for the rescue truck, the vehicle will have to be parked outside. “They sit out in the weather; security is a problem for us, and this means more maintenance for the truck,” Lund said.

Hager, who started working at Station 54 in 1972, said the structure’s first floor once housed county offices, archives and a library.

Until the early 1960s, he said, former Fire Capt. Eugene C. Putnam and his family lived on the second floor over the garage. Putnam, the only paid fire official in Camarillo at the time, was captain of the volunteer squad from 1940 to 1962. His son, John Putnam, was born in the building in 1944.

“I don’t know that it was any different than growing up in any house,” John Putnam said. “In those times, they . . . did not have as many calls.”

Although money is tight, Lund said there is a chance the district may be able to raise the cash needed to build a new station by borrowing against the resale value of Station 54. If that happens, he said, “we might be able to pull something off next year.”