Checking in on Ascension firefighters still working out of makeshift stations after flood – The Advocate

GEISMAR The Geismar Volunteer Fire Department station on La. 73, one of seven out of 11 fire stations that flooded in Ascension Parish, has regained a semblance of normalcy.

It looks much better now than it did in August, when snakes from the woods behind the station and an eel later returned to a bayou by a firefighter swam inside, in the roughly eight inches of flood water that rose in the building.

The ruined interior walls are gone, leaving the studs exposed, and in recent weeks the station has been set up again with its original folding tables and chairs, Coke machine and snack machine and copier and computer. Sofas have been donated to the station, too.

There are no working restrooms in the building firefighters drive to facilities elsewhere.

Yet, in the last month or so, volunteer firefighters who didnt stop responding to emergency calls during and after the flood began coming by their fire station again to check in with other firefighters and visit when they could.

I guess people are starting to get their lives back, said George Vogel, a retired New Orleans firefighter who works 27 hours a week at the Geismar fire station.

Hes one of 35 to 40 paid, contract firefighters who cover the day shift in Fire Protection District 1, which serves 80 percent of the residents on the east bank of Ascension Parish and numbers six volunteer fire departments, Geismar being one of them.

Approximately 200 volunteer firefighters cover the night shift throughout the district.

As hard as it was to come to the station as it was, it was better for me than my house in the days after the flood, said Vogel.

Vogel, who moved to St. Amant after Hurricane Katrina, and many other firefighters were among the thousands of people in Ascension Parish and the region who helplessly watched as their homes flooded last summer.

"Not only did their fire stations flood, their own homes flooded," James LeBlanc, chairman of the board for Fire Protection District 1, said of the local firefighters."It takes a very serious toll on trying to keep the morale going."

The August flood destroyed Andy Deshazers Denham Springs home and his vehicles.

LeBlanc and other officials with the fire protection district believe it will cost approximately $6 million to repair or rebuild its flood-damaged fire stations.

Volunteer and contract firefighters whose fire stations flooded are working out of gutted stations, as in Geismar, in rented work space or in an on-site trailer.

Fortunately, all of the district's 36 fire trucks, each costing $200,000 to $250,000, were saved, as firefighters moved them as needed to escape rising water.

"Everywhere we drove them, the flood followed us," said LeBlanc, who is also the volunteer fire chief of the St. Amant Fire Department, another of the volunteer fire departments under the umbrella of District 1.

The district has been able to continue to house its fire trucks in their enclosed, concrete-floored bay areas, even in buildings that sustained damage.

Hardest hit were the fire stations of the St. Amant Volunteer Fire Department, LeBlanc said.

Filing tax returns is confusing enough but will be much more complicated this year for tens

Two of them, the main station on Stringer Bridge Road and a substation on La. 22, will have to be bulldozed and rebuilt.

Both buildings were damaged at over 50 percent of their value and are considered substantially damaged by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, LeBlanc said.

St. Amant's main fire station initially served as the fire district's command post as flood waters began to rise the weekend of Aug. 12, but it soon took on more than 4 feet of water.

"The water came across Stringer Bridge Road and took out the St. Amant fire station and St. Amant High School," LeBlanc said.

The St. Amant substation on La. 22 that will have to be demolished, along with the main fire station, took on 7 feet of water.

The St. Amant Volunteer Fire Department's second substation, on La. 431, will be repaired after flood water rose to 2 feet in the building.

"In St. Amant, the damage was so bad at all three stations that we lost every single record, from 1973 to 2017, we ever maintained," LeBlanc said.

Firefighters are working out of rented space at the Venue rental hall facility in St. Amant.

At the Geismar station, mentioned earlier, plans were in place before the flood to build a new fire station behind the present one, which will get a semi-remodel to give them a home for the next year-and-a-half to two years until the new station is built, LeBlanc said.

Other Fire Protection District 1 volunteer fire stations had varying amounts of damage, with two escaping flooding altogether:

The Sorrento Volunteer Fire Department on Main Street got some floodwater, but much of its damage came from a leak in the roof, LeBlanc said. Firefighters there are working in the gutted station that will, like the station in Geismar, be semi-remodeled until a new station planned before the flood is built at a new, larger location on John Leblanc Boulevard/La. 22.

The Galvez/Lake Volunteer Fire Department in Prairieville took on several inches of water in its main fire station on Joe Sevario Road and its substation on La. 931. Plans are for the buildings to be repaired. Firefighters are working out of a trailer at the main fire station.

The Fifth Ward Volunteer Fire Department in the Darrow/Hillaryville area, with a main station on La. 22 and a substation on La. 44, escaped flood damage.

The 7th District Volunteer Fire Department in Gonzales, with a main station on La. 44 and a substation on Roddy Road, also escaped flood damage.

Fire Protection District 1 covers a roughly 54-square-mile area and serves approximately 85,000 residents over most of Ascension Parish on the east bank.

Two other fire protection districts, District 3 in Prairieville and District 2 on the west bank in Donaldsonville, cover the rest of the parish. No fire stations in those districts flooded.

The volunteer fire departments are funded through a portion of a half-cent parish sales tax, with District 1 receiving approximately $2.3 million to $2.6 million from it annually, LeBlanc said.

Eugene Witek, fire coordinator for District 1, said officials dont expect the flood and its consequences to have a negative impact on sales tax revenues, which are bolstered by plant construction projects and expansions in the parish.

Both men say they are working closely with the district's flood insurance company, as well as with the parish and FEMA, through the FEMA reimbursement process.

Our hearts are completely shattered over fire district losses in the parish, said LeBlanc, whose home also flooded, but our faith is still strong.

LeBlanc said losing photo albums and scrapbooks he had kept over 30 years as a fire chief hit him almost as hard as losing everything in his house.

Still, he said, local firefighters never stopped working and never stopped protecting our community.

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Checking in on Ascension firefighters still working out of makeshift stations after flood - The Advocate