ADAMS, Mass. — Like many public safety organizations in the Berkshires, the Adams Fire District is looking for ways to address its building's deteriorating condition. 

 

The 65-year-old firehouse on Columbia Street houses both the fire station and Water Department and has myriad issues including leaking and rotting windows, improper ventilation, outdated and obsolete electrical panels, minimal storage, two undersized bays, no sprinkler system or carbon monoxide detectors, and no space for training. 

 

Last year, the Fire Department worried its new engine would fall through the floor of the firehouse so the district invested in renting a shoring system to hold the structure up. 

 

Prior to installing the system, the 2026 ladder truck could not be housed inside the station; with the temporary fix in place, it can now be stored indoors and is fully in service. 

 

Voters can expect warrant articles addressing the situation, including $8,000 for a space needs assessment and $44,000 from free cash to purchase the station's shoring support system.

 

Renting the system costs about $2,000 per month, and with long-term solutions — such as repairing the deteriorating building or relocating departments — expected to take several years, officials believe purchasing it may be the more feasible option.

 

Although the system holds up the structure, it also exacerbates another issue — space. 

 

The Water Department's trailers and equipment had to be relocated to several sites around town, as the system now occupies more than half of the space where they were previously stored.

 

"We lost about 70 percent of our garage … that was our everything. It has dramatically affected [operations] because we have trouble getting in and out now, we can't get our trailers down there, we moved equipment all over the place," Water Department Superintendent John Barrett said. 

 

"So, now to go and try to do something, we effectively have four locations that we may have to go to do one job now, because we can't keep all the stuff in here anymore." 

 

Some equipment remains at the station, while other items are scattered across multiple locations: the Water Department's back loader is at the Highway Department, pipes are stored at the well station in Cheshire, gravel is at the Adams construction facility, and gates and additional equipment are kept at Hoxie Brook, where the town's $2 million tank is located.

 

Depending on the equipment required, having to travel to multiple locations to collect materials can add 45 to 50 minutes to a job, Barrett said. 

 

"If we have a job planned, we can prepare for that, and we can do that … we're an emergency 24/7 service so it really impacts our response times and our repair times when we go out for any emergency water break," he said. 

 

First Assistant Engineer David Lennon previously went through the department's history from its founding with three hand-drawn carts in 1873, to the 1890 Park Street firehouse and to the current fire station in 1960.

 

The department was founded in 1876, as the Alert Hose Company No. 1, a volunteer organization tasked with providing fire suppression and other emergency service manpower. 

 

Officials have stated that the town's needs have grown over the years, leading to the department's expansion and a greater need for funding.

 

It no longer meets the needs of a modern fire service, with the growing number of regulations and standards, larger and heavier vehicles, increased equipment and training requirements, and a rising call volume.

 

Compounding these issues are limited parking and the difficult and dangerous need to cross traffic lanes to back trucks into the firehouse on a major road with obstructed views.

 

Modern fire departments also require decontamination areas, as it has been discovered that after returning from a fire, gear carries carcinogens and PFAS. The station becomes contaminated when firefighters put their gear away without proper decontamination, Fire Chief John Pansecchi said. 

 

"They're finding a lot of contamination in the older stations from that," he said. 

 

The space needs assessment will likely show that the fire station and Water Department need to relocate because of due to insufficient space to meet current needs and the lack of room for an addition, Pansecchi said. 

 

"We've just been managing the space that we have and trying to survive," he said.