Less than 10 years after North Las Vegas’ Fire Station 53 was built in 2009, the city discovered something troubling: The building was sinking.
Last July, the city began to take action to stop the subsidence and remedy the building’s structural deficits. By that point, the building had fallen about 4 inches, North Las Vegas spokesperson Delen Goldberg said. In November, it was down seven inches. Repairs are expected to cost $2 million, Goldberg said.
That’s why North Las Vegas is asking the architecture firm that built the fire station to pay up.
“Our hope is that the people responsible, the builders, will do right by their work and fix it, and that it won’t fall on the taxpayers for their shoddy work,” Goldberg said.
The building’s problems began about two years ago and seemed innocuous at first, said fire chief Joe Calhoun. Cracks formed on the walls and in the floors, eventually growing into “3 to 4-inch gaps,” Calhoun said.