In 1912, when the fire station on South Prospect Street is thought to have been built, firefighters used horses to pull their fire apparatus, said Marion City Fire Chief Chuck Deem.

"This building was built to house horses, not 67,000-pound ladder trucks," he said.

Now, the ladder truck is believed to have played a role in cracks and leaks in the floor, one of several structural issues the fire chief says are plaguing the main fire station at 186 S. Prospect St.

Fire officials have proposed repairs, but city lawmakers have raised questions about the price tag.

The strange case of Station 31 was supposed to be closed. In the early 2000s, firefighters rang alarm bells about the number of people who worked in the North Seattle location and had gotten sick — as many as 25 in the immediately preceding years, Seattle Weekly reported at the time. A state Department of Health study concluded that, between when the station opened in 1975 and 2003, 119 of its resident firefighters became sick with cancer.

The story ballooned as the firefighters demanded an investigation into the root of the problem and accused then-mayor Greg Nickels of resisting. At one point, Station 31 Capt. Bruce Amer threatened to pitch a tent city outside the station in protest. 

For the mayor and the general public, the conclusion seemed to cap the controversy and the issue largely disappeared. 

But for members of the Seattle Fire Department, Station 31 has never shed its reputation as an unsafe place to work. In the years since the building was declared harmless, more current and former firefighters from the station have become ill. How many, no one can say; the accounting is anecdotal. But Capt. Mike Gagliano said in just the last year, three have gotten sick. To this day, it’s still known as the “Cancer House.”

Thanks to a grant from the Lauderdale County Development Committee, the fire department now has four Res-Q-Jacks, which stabilize and elevate a vehicle.

“I was looking for equipment that could benefit us in these situations,” Mitchell said. “I saw these jacks, read about them, and then talked with Rep. Tim Melson, R-Florence, and Rep. Phillip Pettus, R-Greenhill, about the need. They suggested we apply for grant money through the Lauderdale County Development Committee.”

He said the department received a total of $10,558.50, which provided for the purchase of the jacks and some water tanks for the trucks.

“Without the grant money there is no way we could have purchased the jacks and the water tanks,” the chief said. “This is a luxury for our department. We appreciate Melson and Pettus, and the community development committee for the money.”

A Hiram-area resident has won the award in Portage County for the past six years. In 2013 and again from 2015 to 2018, a member of the Groselle family won the money and donated it to the Hiram Fire Department, Groselle said. His father Jack won in 2013, 2016 and 2017, and Jason won it in 2015 and 2018, he said. 

The funds were then donated to the Hiram Firefighters Association to purchase equipment for the department. This year, the money was used to purchase a Great Wall Grain rescue tube to help rescue people trapped in grain vents, along with Innotex Gray Hood 25s for Hiram firefighters to wear during firefighting operations, Groselle said. 

The department trained with a grain rescue tube on the Groselle family farm last August and “thought it would be a good investment for our community and surrounding communities to utilize,” Groselle said. “Normally, budget funds aren’t approved to buy something like that.”