TOLEDO, Ohio — Being a firefighter is a tough enough job as it is, but some of them across Toledo are battling more than just flames.
A $1.6 million state grant unanimously approved by Toledo City Council on Wednesday can help with that, intended to fund repairs for Toledo Fire & Rescue Department stations across the city that the president of the firefighters union says have crumbling infrastructure and are missing important features.
"We've just got old stations that frankly need to be replaced," said Matt Tabb, president of Toledo Firefighters Local 92, which represents 560 firefighters and 18 stations in the city.
Tabb says as part of a larger contract discussion with the city, one of the major concerns expressed by local firefighters is what he calls a desperate need for fixing fire station infrastructure.
"We've got a station, Station 21, that has cracks in the walls and in the foundation," he said of the station at Detroit and Glendale avenues in south Toledo. "It's leaking water."
And Station 24 in Point Place has an out-of-service shower in the women's bathroom.
"There's a leak somewhere, the shower in the women's bathroom is out of service, doesn't work," Tabb said. "The females that work there can't use it."
Toledo City Council member John Hobbs III says the city has been aware of the problems and is stepping up to help.
"You want this to be a place that is comfortable, you want this to be a place that is safe, and so much of this is going to go to making our fire stations safer for our firefighters," he said.
The grant money will strictly fund Toledo fire station repairs, per the ordinance proposed by Hobbs.
"This is going to present an opportunity for roofs to be repaired, walls to be repaired, crumbling floors to be taken care of," he said.
The money will not just fix physical issues, it will balance budgets, too, according to Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz.
He says in years past, some of the city's money for repairs had gone to bumping firefighter salaries. So for him, it's not an either-or situation; the grant offers relief.
"Any amount of money that we can get from any source to make those improvements is welcome," the mayor said. "I congratulate councilman Hobbs for that ordinance. $1.6 million will go a long way to making, not all of the improvements we need to make, but many of them."