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Old City's Ben Franklin Firehouse, Damaged Last Year By Fire, Reopens After Rebuild

By John McDevitt

 

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Snorkel 2,  Battalion 4, and Medic 44B are back home.  The firehouse at 4th and Arch Streets in Old City has reopened after going through major renovations  for extensive fire damage sustained in a fire last September.

The renovations and upgrades cost approximately $475,000.  There are new windows, new floors, doors, air conditioning, and an upgraded exhaust system that allows the exhaust pipes of the vehicles of be hooked to hoses and vented outside.

"Diesel emissions can cause cancer for the members," notes Philadelphia fire commissioner Derrick Sawyer (below left), "and when the trucks go in and out, when we didn't have the exhaust systems, this whole ceiling would be covered with soot -- the ceiling and the walls."

sawyer_derrick arch st _mcdevl
(Philadelphia fire commissioner Derrick Sawyer demonstrates how an exhaust hose can be connected to a running fire vehicle to vent fumes to the outside. Photo by John McDevitt)

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Sawyer says upgraded systems have been incorporated into all of the citys firehouses during the past five years.

Officials say the Old City neighborhood was always protected during the months the firehouse was closed, with response times from nearby stations meeting the national stanard of five minutes or less.

 

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