Debate Blazes at New Fire Station

The fire engines fit nicely in the roomy new building. The firefighters say they’re the ones who don’t fit in.

That was the way things seemed Monday morning as firefighters moved into West Hollywood’s controversial new $6-million showpiece fire station.

Painters were still finishing up inside the glitzy redwood-and-glass trimmed Station No. 7 at the corner of Cynthia Street and San Vicente Boulevard when firefighters rolled up in their truck.

And in a city known for its devotion to style, debate was still raging over who is to blame for the station opening 2 1/2 years behind schedule and more than $2 million over budget--and with a long list of design problems to boot.

West Hollywood officials point the finger at the Los Angeles County Fire Department for mismanaging the station’s design and construction.

County fire officials, who provide protection to West Hollywood under a $6.3-million annual contract, say the city is responsible for a series of finicky--and costly--specifications that delayed the new firehouse.

City Council members are so angry that they are taking steps to sue the county for the return of $2 million they say was given to the county to “expedite” construction. They are also considering withdrawing from the county fire protection district and contracting with neighboring Beverly Hills or Los Angeles or forming a municipal department.

“This is a mess,” said one firefighter Monday.

But he wasn’t talking about the political squabbling. He was referring to the rambling fire station itself.

The new station is built on a 45-degree angle so that its front doors open directly into the middle of a major intersection.

The oddly angled firetruck exit requires engines to make a partial U-turn in the intersection to turn right onto Cynthia Street. The front driveway is positioned in a way that some fear will funnel rainstorm runoff down San Vicente from the nearby Sunset Strip directly into the station. (A new storm drain planned for the street in two years should solve the problem, officials say.)

The design of the underground parking garage caused the floor of the fire engine bay to tilt, forcing firefighters to use wheel blocks beneath trucks to keep them from rolling.

The interior of the station meanders over four levels. Firefighters’ living quarters on the second floor have an industrial look with exposed ceiling insulation and heating ducts, sleeping areas with cubicle-like walls that do not extend to the ceiling, and lighting fixtures that take two or three minutes to come on.

Several of the station’s restrooms are so tiny that users must straddle the toilet to shut the doors. Some sleeping quarters’ desks are jammed so tightly behind posts that they are unusable.

“The station just doesn’t flow the way a fire station should. We have to run all the way across the station to get to the pole,” one firefighter explained Monday. The lone sliding pole connecting the living quarters with the firetruck bay was built on the side of the station after it was determined that the two poles originally proposed couldn’t be installed because they were in the way of the station’s overhead firetruck doors.

Firefighters at first were worried about all the extra work it would take to clean the new station’s many windows. But to their relief, the Fire Department has agreed to hire professional window washers.

Fire officials reiterated their view that the city is responsible for some of the design mix-ups.

“The hump in the apparatus floor is because the city made us put in underground parking. And that added $500,000 to the cost,” said Renolds Cairncross, project manager for the Fire Department.

Other city-requested additions included fancy art railings along a balcony and new double-paned soundproof windows for neighboring residences that face the fire station, he added.

Fire officials scrambled to complete the station after the project’s original contractor was fired in early March. Cairncross said he managed to get the station finished by calling in all the chits he had with contractors who normally worked with his department.

“I said, ‘Guys, if you owe it to me, you owe it to me now,’ ” Cairncross said.

The replacement crews were required to redesign and rebuild the front driveway so it was usable by fire engines. And station lighting is being modified so that some interior lights come on instantaneously, Cairncross said.

The new fire station has room for six engines and replaces a tiny, 76-year-old firehouse a few blocks away at 958 N. Hancock Ave. That Tudor-style structure had room for one engine. The city and county are fighting over who owns the structure.

West Hollywood Mayor Jeffrey Prang, Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky joined a Fire Department historian and retired firefighters to mark the closure of the old fire station on Friday.

Although the decommissioning ceremony was polite, city officials are pushing ahead with studies that could lead to their own fire department if they quit the county service.