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Heavy Rain Floods Firehouse, City Hall

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By NICOLA M. WHITE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 24, 2008

Updated: 01/23/2008 09:34 pm

ZEPHYRHILLS - Until the rain pounded the streets, crept inside the truck bays and sloshed through the offices and dorms of Fire Station No. 2 Wednesday, the city wasn't thinking about building a new fire station until October 2009.

That timeline changed Wednesday morning.

As firefighters and city officials in galoshes waded through the flooded the downtown station, a new plan took shape.

The city may now move up the timetable to build a fire station or an administrative wing for Zephyrhills Fire Rescue, City Manager Steve Spina said.

"The building's been in bad shape for a while. This is just the icing on the cake," Spina said.

Wednesday's early morning rainstorm, which battered the area just past 1:30 a.m., came on so unexpectedly and so quickly that there was no time to prepare the fire station or nearby city hall, where a basement storage space flooded.

Damage estimates were not available Wednesday evening, but the rainwater damaged fire department furniture, bedding, computers and other equipment. The station's carpet will have to be replaced, and parts of the station's drywall were being removed Wednesday afternoon.

Built in 1960, the Sixth Avenue station was the city's first and only until the Dairy Road fire station was built in 2000. It is smaller than the Dairy Road facility and lacking in many areas. Firefighters have nicknamed it "the outhouse."

For years, officials have said that the station is in a poor location because the area has been prone to flooding.

This month, Fire Chief Keith Williams asked the city council to consider purchasing a vacant office building near the Dairy Road headquarters and turning it into administrative offices; that idea was tabled because of budgetary constraints.

Williams said the severity of Wednesday's flood added urgency to any plans for securing office space or relocating the fire station.

He said he worried about what might have happened if the storm had been fiercer.

"This was just a passing rainstorm, not a torrential hurricane," he said.

"We were able to maintain services at this time, but if I had 2 feet of water in this station, I couldn't get the trucks out."

For now, firefighters will work out of the Dairy Road station, about 2 miles north of the downtown station. The city also may place a trailer on the downtown property to house temporary dormitories for firefighters working overnight shifts, Williams said.

Wednesday's flood happened on the same day city department heads were supposed to discuss long-term capital improvement plans. In the past year, city officials have pressed for a newer, larger city hall.

Because of the flood damage to the fire department, though, that project likely will be put on the back burner, Spina said.

He said he can't justify the expense of tearing down a functioning city hall when there are more pressing needs in the fire department, he said.

"I'd love a Lincoln," he said. "But we've got a Ford, and we're going to have to stick with it and that's the way it is."

Reporter Nicola M. White can be reached at (813) 779-4613 or nwhite1@tampatrib.com.

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