16 Photos
The Hampton Road firehouse being demolished Thursday morning.
Photo by Kim Covell
The Hampton Road firehouse being demolished Thursday morning.
Photo by Kim Covell
Photo by Colleen Reynolds
Photo by Colleen Reynolds
Photo by Colleen Reynolds
A hydraulic excavator ripped apart the Southampton Fire Department firehouse on Hampton Road in Southampton Village last week to make way for a larger, more modern and energy-efficient $5.9 million firehouse to be built in the same spot.
Workers from Augusiewicz Contracting, Inc., in Bay Shore razed the roof and gutted the building’s interior last Thursday, September 9, but left three outer walls standing until this week. Those walls contained asbestos, a carcinogen, and had to be dismantled and separated from the other demolition debris, according to Edik Ivans, project manager for Enviroscience Consultants, Inc., an independent consulting company based in Ronkonkoma. Mr. Ivans said his duty was to oversee the demolition to ensure that the walls were not compromised and that everything was being done in accordance with state law.
Certified asbestos handlers starting imploding the walls on Monday and expected to finish the work on Tuesday. The walls were knocked inwards and constantly sprayed with water to “keep the dust down” and prevent the “potential escape of any fibers,” Mr. Ivans said.
Regular construction debris was cleared from the site on Thursday and hauled to a transfer site in the Riverhead area, to be sorted for recycling, according to Mr. Ivans.
The asbestos-tainted debris was to be transported in specially lined trucks to a “controlled landfill” in Ohio, he said.
Last month, Southampton Village hired E&A Restoration, Inc., a Syosset contracting firm, to demolish the old firehouse. The village agreed to pay the company $71,500 to do the work.
Officials have not yet announced when they will break ground on the new firehouse. That project was approved by voters last fall.
In the meantime, firefighters will be operating out of their two other firehouses: one on Windmill Lane in the village and another on St. Andrew’s Road, just to the west of the village in Shinnecock Hills. In addition, some equipment is being stored at a facility on Flying Point Road, said Village Trustee Paul Robinson, who serves as commissioner to the Fire Department.
