March 26, 2009

Firehouse chimney tilting dangerously

A 45-foot tall brick chimney beside the central firehouse is beginning to tilt.
Though it’s got a long way to go before it matches the Leaning Tower of Pisa, it’s leaning far enough to worry city officials who are racing to have it knocked down before it comes down on its own.
“It could be dangerous,” said city Councilor Cliff Block.
Fire Chief Jon Pose said that he noticed several weeks ago that “a distinct tilt” had afflicted the half century old chimney on the north side of the firehouse.
The freestanding chimney is connected by a single metal pipe to the firehouse itself. An emergency generator sits right beside it.
At this point, Pose said, the chimney is 8 inches off center, but there’s concern that it could creep further sideways.
“The base of the chimney is crumbling,” Pose said.
The city’s purchasing agent, Roger Rousseau, is soliciting bids to take down the chimney.
“Before it falls down, we’re going to tear it down,” Pose said.
It will likely be replaced by a power vent on the side of the firehouse that can serve the same function for a fraction of the cost of building a new chimney.
Public Works Director Walter Veselka said that when the chimney is removed this spring, the city will try to preserve as many bricks from it as possible to use for future renovations of the firehouse.
That way, Pose said, any bricks that have to be replaced can match the ones that have been there since the 1960s.
Veselka said that saving bricks will add a little bit to the cost, but it’s worth it.
The fire board and the city’s building committee each agreed this week to proceed with the chimney’s removal.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Steve, slow news day? Joking :) Hey I have an idea, lets pay a consultant $100k to evaluate the chimney. Then have D'Amato, Carpenter and Laverio bid and charge another $100k to take it down. Oh lets not forget a hazardous waste evaluation first too. LOL.
Why not have the firefighters take it down? They have the ladders and equipment. They have a dump truck to get rid of the debris. Start from the top and take it down piece by piece. It really can't be that hard. And it would be way more productive than sitting out back washing their personal cars, visiting with family and friends and cooking out on the grill like they do most days...or walking around DFO with their grocery list while on the clock...from what I observe.

Anonymous said...

Why don't the firemen take it down instead of sitting around doing nothing all day? Maybe they could skip washing the trucks that day?

Anonymous said...

4:07 - such optimism

Anonymous said...

Great idea March 26, 2009 4:07 PM!

Here's another: D'Amato, Carpenter, and Laviero should pool their resources and take it down for no cost to the city! After all the work and profits they've realized from Bristol taxpayers, it's the least they could do in these troubled times.

Or at the very, very, very least, they could do it for cost!

Anonymous said...

Thing fall apart because we have no quality dept heads that have a clue what their jobs are.

Anonymous said...

Things fall apart because of age - its been there since 1960. Get your head out of your butt for a second and see the real world.

Anonymous said...

Nero fiddling while Rome burned.

Sound familiar?

Anonymous said...

"Be polite, please. I will delete posts that are too mean-spirited."

Hey Steve, the first anonymous comment in this section doesn't fall under your policy on comment moderation? This person obviously has an axe to grind.

Anonymous said...

1:05, Sounds familiar, but it has absolutely nothing to with an over 50 year old chimney tilting over the years now, does it?

Anonymous said...

Hey 1:50. I wrote the 4:07 and actually I don't have an axe to grind at all. I'm just stating how things seem to go around this town-a simple statement of my personal observations and interpretation of said observations. Nobody said you had to agree. Although maybe if you'd open your eyes you could make your own observations and state them instead of attacking mine :) In fact, you kinda sound like you have a bit of a guilty conscience?? Hmmm
Nick

Anonymous said...

1:50- I also forgot to mention that you you don't seem to have much of a sense of irony and/or sarcasm. N-

Anonymous said...

4:25

What has Ward done with and about the effort of the previous two administrations to address the aging of the firehouses?

Wasn't he the liason to the Fire Board?

Anonymous said...

We should start a pool on the date and time it finally goes over!

Anonymous said...

Save those bricks !!!! Sounds like someone needs a new B-B-Q in their backyard .

Anonymous said...

Yeah ..... you can store those bricks @ the Bristol Centre Mall . There isn't going to be anything happening their during my lifetime.

Anonymous said...

When they're not washing their cars, cooking BBQ, or shopping at DFO, they are hanging out drinking Dunkin donut coffee, or is it really coffee? I can't believe how little work these guys do in an average week.

AnonymousWestconnStudent said...

God bless the fire department!

nimble mind said...

10:14am - yeah, like there, not their, has been a lot of positives going on in your lifetime - get a "two-tour" and learn how to spell.

Anonymous said...

Bristol should cut the Fire staff in half to save money and recruit volunteers to close the gap. EVERY other town surrounding us has volunteer firefighters and I don't see them complaining or their town any more unsafe than ours. It's a total waste of money to have so many full-time firefighters in Bristol. Just another example of how our town never seems to follow suit with our surrounding community. And trust me, we ALL pay for it. Bristol is an outcast whether you realize it or not.

AnonymousWestconnStudent said...

Bristol should cut the Fire staff in half to save money and recruit volunteers to close the gap. EVERY other town surrounding us has volunteer firefighters and I don't see them complaining or their town any more unsafe than ours. It's a total waste of money to have so many full-time firefighters in Bristol. Just another example of how our town never seems to follow suit with our surrounding community. And trust me, we ALL pay for it. Bristol is an outcast whether you realize it or not.


Another example of not wanting something until you actually need it.

Other towns around us don't have populations nearing 60,000 people. Volunteer fire departments in their communities fit the size and the needs of the community.

And I'm not quite sure how having a full time fire department makes us an outcast, oh well.

But in any situation like this, since you are so eager to say we should replace some of our full time firemen with volunteers let me be the first to say...

Thank you for volunteering.

Chris said...

As much as I hate to succumb to internet trolling.....
Nick, I'm a cop in the Hartford area and a volunteer firefighter in my town. I lived in Bristol until 5 years ago. I admit that I took offense (as I'm sure you intended) when you attempted to call out firemen. You're certainly entititled to your opinions on what you supposedly observe.
As to the laughable statements about replacing city firemen with volunteers, here's some numbers for you:
8 of the top ten largest cities in CT employ 100% career departments. (Bristol is the 9th largest by population, compared to nearby #8 New Britain and #10 West Hartford, both 100% career depts.) The other 2 are combination departments who have been forced to expand their career staff in response to growth in their city. East Hartford, Milford, Stratford, and Meriden are just some of the towns and cities smaller than Bristol that employ career firefighters.
Just for kicks, here's the est. populations of Bristol's actual neighbors:
Burlington: 9.100
Farmington:25,000 (has had to hire career firefighters to keep up with growth)
Southington: 42,000 (has had to expand it's career dept)
Plymouth: 12,000
Wolcott:16,000
I'm almost 95% sure that I've been baited into typing much more than I intended, so kudoes to you. I'm unsure if any of this anger towards firefighters comes from those who could never manage to get hired, but this was my $0.02

Anonymous said...

Sounds like someone has a fire axe to grind.

Anonymous said...

I think a few of the firemen are HOT!

Anonymous said...

Ya they are "Hot"...hot that I called them out on their on-duty activities. Maybe I will take photos next time and post them since nobody seems to believe me.

Anonymous said...

7:08, I believe you. Because I've seen the firemen do that too. Same thing with city workers abusing their city vehicles to go out on romantic dates during the workday. Don't forget all the city workers who are political party officers, I bet they do party work during their workday on city time.

Anonymous said...

"Maybe I will take photos next time"

Okay, now you guys are getting more than a little creepy. Fireman stalking is against the law.

Seriously though, you folks really need to get a life.

Anonymous said...

Chief Pose is the hottest! ;)

Anonymous said...

What happened to the 5 year plan to look at all the Firehouses?

Did Ward pull another Nicastro?