The Kings County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution Tuesday designating all 10 county fire stations as safe surrender sites for newborn babies. Prior to the resolution, Adventist Medical Center in Hanford was the only designated surrender location in the county.

California first implemented the Safely Surrendered Baby Law in 2001. The law provides a safe way for parents who are unable or unwilling to care for their baby to surrender the child within three days of birth. The law allows parents, who may have otherwise abandoned their baby in an unsafe place, to surrender the child without being prosecuted for child abandonment.

Kings County Fire Marshal Brandon Jones said the issue came to light recently after an infant was surrendered at the hospital.

"The law allows fire stations to be designated by the board of supervisors or city council, but they are not designated by default," Jones said. "Most people think fire stations are a 'safe place.' "

Nevertheless, firefighters in at least one of those stations complain the mold is returning, a Treasure Coast Newspapers investigation found.

There's mold in the day-room access at Station 11 in Wabasso, according to a June 5 email from Fire Rescue Lt. Todd Porter to county officials.

"With the weather now much hotter, the problem seems to be getting worse," Porter told county officials in the email, obtained by Treasure Coast Newspapers. "The mold is not only reoccurring more frequently, but there is also now moisture and condensation that is forming in the archway and the top of the electrical panel."

County testing in March 2015 first confirmed mold toxins in four fire stations, although toxicologist Bruce Kelman, hired by the county, said the mold levels were too low to harm firefighters unless they had allergies.

The county completed mold remediation in stations 10 and 11 in July 2015. But more extensive work and remediation was needed at Station 1 on Old Dixie Highway in Vero Beach and at Station 7 in the western part of the county. Temporary modular buildings were brought in at stations 1 and 7 in because of the extensive repairs needed. Station 7 reopened in February at a temporary site on 90th Avenue. Station 1 reopened in March.

Crews will be able to respond more quickly due to the vehicle’s two-person crewing requirement, and this will also enable on-call stations to attend local incidents where they would not previously have been able to unless a team of at least four were available.

First to get the new engine will be Hightown, Winchester, Kingsclere, Brockenhurst and Gosport stations; fire chiefs have stated that this is an addition to the fleet, and not a replacement. Response Delivery Station Manager Gina Gray, who worked on the FRC project, said: "This is a really impressive addition to the fleet and it will give us, as a service, the chance to respond to incidents in the best way possible.

"The new vehicle allows us to send an on-call crew out with two or three people instead of being off-the-run if we don't have four people available.

"Until now, a fire engine would have to be called in from farther away to deal with an incident, whereas now we can attend and get to nearby incidents to provide initial actions while other vehicles are being mobilised and, in some cases, the FRC will be able to resolve incidents on its own."

The FRC is equipped with ladders, water, hose reels, breathing apparatus and cutting gear as well as new equipment such as thermal imaging cameras, the Immediate Emergency Care pack and Ultra-High Pressure Lance.

It is also fitted with a bespoke stowage system, which enabled the engine to carry an array of handheld tools and supporting equipment - and the vehicle may be altered based on the views of the firefighters using it.