The conditions
Houston Mayor John Whitmire said HFD Station 101 was originally built for a volunteer fire department and had not been upgraded since 1997. When he first saw the conditions of the fire station during the flooding that occurred in Kingwood in early May, Whitmire said he was appalled to see the living conditions of first responders, which included mold throughout the facility and holes in the ceilings and floors.
"I knew something was certainly broken," Whitmire said during the ceremony.
What's being done
To address the fire station's shortcomings, Whitmire said he worked with Houston City Council and HFD to complete renovations at Station 101, which included improvements to housing and sanitation.
"This is a ribbon-cutting of a facility that firefighters can look forward to working out of," Whitmire said. "This is just the beginning. Kingwood's been ignored for years and years. [With] these upgrades ... not only do we have better housing and facilities, but we have better morale. The firefighters know we care."
What's next
District E Council Member Fred Flickinger noted while the renovations addressed critical problems in the short-term, the city is in the process of procuring a piece of property upon which they plan to build an entirely new fire station in the future.
"This isn't the final solution, we're actually looking at building another station out here," Flickinger said during the ceremony. "So hopefully, long before this one gets worn out, we'll have that new fire station and everyone will really be happy."
