Richmond Fire officials confirmed Sunday evening that fire personnel at Church Hill’s Fire Station 1 are being relocated due to the possibility of mold found in the building.
However, in a statement Sunday evening, Richmond Fire Lt. Chris Armstrong said they will be temporarily relocating personnel normally housed at the station at 308 N. 24th Street to adjacent stations “out of an abundance of caution while Fire Administration has a building issue addressed.”
Armstrong stressed the action “will have minimal effect on service delivery to this fire service district.”
Armstrong did not go into specifics about what the “building issue” at Richmond Fire Station 1 was, but Richmond Firefighters Association union president Keith Andes told NBC12 that the station was evacuated due to the possible presence of mold in the station’s HVAC system.
The union president adds that testing will be done at the building in the coming week.
Earlier this year, the Virginia Occupational Safety and Health (VOSH), the Virginia arm of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), investigated claims of harmful exposure at Richmond Fire Station 22 located off Broad Rock Boulevard in May.