BAY CITY, Mich. (WNEM) – The Bay City Department of Public Safety is inviting the community inside its fire stations to see how crews live on the job while tasked with keeping residents safe.
“So the average years of age of our fire stations are pushing about 61 years of age now,” said Bay City Fire Chief Kurt Corradi.
Residents in Bay City headed to Fire Station 1 on Center Avenue for a tour of the facility on Tuesday, Sept. 3.
“Just did a tour with the gentleman that lives in a neighboring community, and he was a little bit shocked,” Corradi said.
The fire department opened its doors so the community can see the living conditions of the firefighters.
“This would be our locker room. Everything in here is all original to the building. We’ve got a little bit of a roof leak problem up there. Only one of these showers works, and then this is our bathroom for the upstairs. That sink’s been out of service for quite a while. I don’t think we can even get parts for it anymore,” said Aaron Boxey, acting battalion chief of the Bay City Fire Department.
The Bay City Fire Department will hold three more open houses at other fire stations in September following Tuesday’s open house.
Corradi said it was important for the department to do this so residents have a better idea of the agency’s infrastructure issues.
“There’s been a lot of talk about infrastructure recently, and there’s some needs that are popping up. Right now, the roof is leaking here. And anytime you have items that are six figures, you know, $100,000 for a roof or a boiler that’s $85,000, it’s important to let people see for themselves what we’re dealing with,” he said.
“This is basically like a big sump pump per se. And this one is extremely old. Sometimes we’ll have to come down and reset it when the alarm goes off in the wintertime, almost on a weekly basis. But this basement, since I’ve worked out of here, has flooded at least three times,” Boxey said during the tour.
This comes after the department closed Station 5 this year, leaving many in the community concerned about the response time of first responders.
But Corradi said the agency is compiling a list of its most pressing needs.
“We’re working on currently putting together an infrastructure needs assessment that basically goes through and gives us a real time view of where the stations are at. We’ve broken those down into what our high-priority needs are versus our medium-priority. Currently, there aren’t a lot of low-priority needs,” he said.
Needs like fixing the roof, which leaked so much that it soaked one of the firefighters’ beds.
But while they know the station is old, they are grateful for what they have.
Residents have three more chances to visit a fire station:
- Wednesday, Sept. 4 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Station 2 on Fremont Avenue.
- Tuesday, Sept. 17 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Station 4 on Dean Street.
- Wednesday, Sept. 18 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Station 5 on Smith Street.
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