CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — Residents in Cuyahoga Falls are overwhelmingly in support of a plan to replace Fire Station 4 on Northampton Road, but some are concerned about the smoke that would be produced by a proposed burn tower that is part of the current plan.
Teo Reaman lives near the fire station location and told News 5 she believes smoke produced 20 to 30 times a year by a burn tower to train firefighters for more than a dozen area fire departments could create an environmental issue for area parks, playgrounds and more.
“Kids are playing here, our kids, our neighborhoods kids play and the national park is across the street," Reaman said. “There's also traffic and parking and run-off from the ash that’s let off from the burn tower. They are supposed to put up retention basins, but the run-off is going to go into those basins and so where does that go and what kind of chemicals.”
Cuyahoga Falls Ward 8 Councilman Frank Stams also agreed with resident concerns; even though he made it clear everyone is in favor of a new fire station and firefighter training, he and some residents just believe the burn tower should be built in a more remote location.
“We’re for the controversial burn tower, just not in this location,” Stams said. “There is a large residential community here, another residential community there, a national park across the street, you’ve got a church and a school."
Stams said he will request city leaders look for another site for the fire train facility, burn tower part of the proposal.
"I will lobby my council members to investigate and search in their wards for a better location," Stams said. “The residents here also face an economic challenge as well with the building of the burn tower. How is that going to affect property values?”
However, Chief Chris Martin, with the Cuyahoga Falls Fire Department, defended the proposal for a burn tower and fire training facility at the old fire station location.
Martin told News 5 he's confident in his fire department's ability to control the smoke and control the atmosphere.
“It’s hard, almost impossible, to know how many times we’re going to burn. We are going to set a maximum number of times that we will burn to make sure that we don’t overuse the facility. It’s going to be part of the ordinance when it’s drafted,” Martin said. “We have to comply with all EPA standards. It has to be a permitted facility and a permitted burn every time we burn.”
Martin told News 5 that the fires at the proposed fire tower will be very small and utilize easily controlled wood pallets and straw.
“Here in the City of Cuyahoga Falls, you can build a five-by-five-foot bonfire. Ours will be less than that. It’s a finite amount of smoke that we are going control," Martin said. ”If weather and wind conditions are not conducive to training and smoke is traveling where we don’t want it, where it creates an unsafe environment, we’re not going to train. We are either going to postpone or cancel the training altogether.”
“We’re a public safety agency. We are not going to put the public safety at risk for training purposes,” Martin said. "That’s not what we’re planning on doing and we’re confident with what we’re doing and the building that we’re designing that we're going to be able to accomplish that.”
Still, Reaman is hoping the city will explore other locations, especially since the burn tower would be a regional fire training asset that would help multiple departments.
“Maybe even partnering with Summit County, there are land banks," Reaman said. "The City of Cuyahoga Falls and Summit County could come together and find mutual ground, literal ground that they could use for an industrial burn tower.
Cuyahoga Falls city leaders told News 5 that the new fire station proposal is set for a first reading in front of the city council on July 10 and is expected to go to the council committee on July 17.
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