PASADENA : Replacement for Unsafe Firehouse Still Unbuilt After 5 Years

Back in 1989, Pasadena Fire Department officials decided Station 34 could not take another jolt.

Built in 1917, the unreinforced masonry building sustained major damage in the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake, forcing city officials to look for another home for a fire station to serve the southeast part of the city. In the meantime, the Fire Department obtained a special permit to use temporary trailers on Del Mar Boulevard, a short distance from the old station.

Initially the Fire Department had planned to use the trailers until mid-1990. But today, after the five-year special-use permit for the trailers has expired, some observers are wondering if a permanent station will ever be built. The Fire Department is expected to file for a new permit soon.

“We thought it would only be there for 18 months,” Fire Department administrative analyst Diane Johnson said of the trailer quarters at 1138 E. Del Mar Blvd. The property has been leased to the city by Caltech for $1 a year.

Since Station 34 was closed, the city has spent close to $4 million on two new fire stations, one at Hammond Street and North Fair Oaks Avenue in Northwest Pasadena, the other on South Fair Oaks Avenue in Old Pasadena.

The city says it lacks funds to build a firehouse to replace Station 34.

The Fire Department, which was paying $1,400 a month to rent the trailers, has since bought them for a total of $65,000, Johnson said.

Councilman Bill Thomson, who represents that area of the city, said the current situation is unacceptable.

“The issue has not gone away and the residents there have not forgotten it,” Thomson said. “When we went in there, we told the neighbors it would be a temporary site. It’s been five years and I think people are past being patient. We need a permanent site.”

Don Wilden, manager of the 107-unit condominium complex that faces the temporary fire station on Del Mar Boulevard, agrees. But he said residents, who for years have complained about sirens and blaring horns of firetrucks leaving the temporary station, will not tolerate a permanent station on the same site.

“It’s been an ongoing problem,” Wilden said. “The best scenario would be that the temporary station would be temporary and that they would move into a permanent station somewhere else.”

That might be easier said than done.

Although Thomson said he hopes that Caltech, which is included in the station’s service area, will contribute to the cost of building a new station, Caltech spokesman Hall Daily said the school has received no proposals for a new station and no funding requests for such a plan.

The Fire Department concedes that it has no plans for relocating Station 34 or building a permanent station. The old station, on Oak Knoll Avenue, still stands but is boarded up. Last month, the city installed a flashing yellow light in front of the Del Mar station, a condition of the original special-use permit issued in 1989 that had never been fulfilled.

“The city has just had delays for one reason or another, and no one has ever done anything about it,” Wilden said.