Black Mold Forces Coweta Firefighters Out Of Station

Coweta firefighters are working in temporary locations after being forced out of the fire station because of black mold.

Despite the inconvenience, the Fire Chief said there won’t be delays in responses.

In the daytime, firefighters will work out of the bays in the garage. Crews working evenings and overnight are now staying at a hotel.

The city said testing began after firefighters started experiencing symptoms from mold allergies and brought up their concerns. Those tests came back positive for black mold, and firefighters were told access to the building should be limited.

City Manager Roger Kolman said the fire station was built in 1985 and has had problems with leaks from the beginning.

“They’ve done mold tests throughout the years and this is the first time that it has come back as black mold,” said Kolman. “We took the immediate action to move our firefighters outside of the station.”

Interim Fire Chief Brian Woodward said crews staying overnight at the hotel are in rooms close to the exits with radios in each of them.

“We were able to take the key pieces of electronics, the certain computers,” said Woodward. “We were able to go put them into the hotel rooms for our company officers, our lieutenants and our firemen to operate off of.”

Woodward said firefighters are making the most of the inconvenience. Most calls require ambulances so those will be kept at the hotels.

They will also keep other engines and trucks on site as needed.

“We’re tackling it statistically,” said Woodward. “We’re making sure we have the right pieces where they need to be.”

The city expects to learn if firefighters can go back into the fire station in the next couple of days.

If they are unable to go back inside, they plan to look at options like renting a building until the new fire station, which was previously approved by voters last year, is finished.