Years of diesel exhaust sediment that has caked walls and coated rafters is being washed away as crews scrub off the San Rafael Fire Department’s six fire stations.
“Every time you start up a diesel engine inside a building, they would puff out some quantity of diesel exhaust into the building,” San Rafael fire Division Chief Keith Schoenthal said. “The diesel exhaust dust that settles onto surfaces is potentially carcinogenic.”
Besides being a possible heath hazard, it’s just gross, said Larry Price of Shingle Springs-based Allied Environmental Inc., an environmental contractor hired to perform the mop-up.
“It leaves the grime – it just leaves the dirt. It’s just a nasty little mess,” said Price, general manager of the Hayward branch office. “It just makes for dirty surfaces. It gets on everything – the carpet, the walls, the structural framing, the lighting.”
The $64,375 project is being paid for through surplus funds set aside for workers’ compensation issues, city officials said.
Swab samples were conducted throughout the buildings to determine where to clean, fire officials said. Crews then suit up in hazardous materials gear, strap on respirators and get to work wiping down ceilings and walls, fire officials said. Swabs are taken again after the work is complete.
The department several years ago retrofitted each station with exhaust pipe hoses that attach to fire engines and other equipment to vent the exhaust outside the station. The improvement means its unlikely the department will have to do such a thorough scrub-down again, officials said.
“Some of the old fire guys said there’s times you walk in here and you could barely see the other side of the building,” said Bob Gerhold, owner of San Rafael-based NorBay Consulting, who is overseeing the cleanup.
“Besides the smell and the fact that a lot of the diesel grime is gone, it looks better,” he said.
Story by Marin Independent Journal
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