STROUD TOWNSHIP -- It's an alarming situation for a volunteer fire department in Monroe County: a hole in the floor of their station.
Stroud Township firefighters say the hole in the floor in their station on North 5th Street is about a foot wide, and they have a 25-ton fire truck sitting right on top of it.
The Stroud Township Volunteer Fire Department says since as early as 1991, engineers told the township their floor could not support heavier equipment.
Now decades later, the floor is giving way, and firefighters are worried the next emergency might be their own.
The assistant chief tells us underneath a piece of steel is a hole that at last check was about a foot wide in diameter.
"We've had issues with the floor since the early '90s when a local engineer looked at it and said it was not fit for heavier fire equipment," said Stroud Township Assistant Fire Chief David Smalley.
Township supervisor Ed Cramer has an entire file on the firehouse floor. Engineers inspected the floor just this past July.
"We feel that it's fine. We've put in well over 40 grand in beefing up this floor to accommodate that," said Cramer.
From the basement, you can see where a steel beam was put in to add support to the floor underneath the 25-ton ladder truck.
But the concrete isn't holding up.
The latest inspection shows that "the floor is flexing and moving slightly when the truck enters and leaves the garage bay." Concrete is falling from the underslab and the grout is peeling.
"It's a little nerve-racking. We're wondering if the front of the truck is going to go through or the back end when we're backing in," said Smalley.
This ladder truck is the first to respond to every fire in Stroud Township and if it were to go crashing through the hole, it would cost about $950,000 to replace.
"We understand that they've maybe outgrown this building over the years. We're looking for a place here on 5th Street. We've actually advertised in our newsletter," Cramer explained.
So far, nothing has turned up.
This fire department says they feel trapped in a dangerous situation.
"It appears that the semi-permanent fix is going to be a one-inch steel plate over our gaping hole."
Now firefighters say they're asking for the community's support, trying to find a permanent solution for their station that responds to about 650 emergency calls per year.
