“The new tools are battery-operated. They are hydraulic tools, which is a fairly new technology. The old tools are gas operated, and we were tethered by hydraulic lines. With the battery operated tools, we don’t have that restriction,” said Steve Shilling, Altoona Fire Department captain.

Firefighters will be trained on the tools before they are used.

But with tens of millions more people living here, and with hundreds of thousands of new homes in what were open-space areas in our foothills, fires in what the United States Forest Service calls wildland-urban interface have become far more common. With climate change-induced hotter weather everywhere in the West, and with historic drought-dried kindling, the annual wildfire season in California has expanded to essentially all year long, and we are in constant danger of going up in flames.

Along with the human and environmental costs, the price the Forest Service must pay to fight these fires has gone up. In 1995, firefighting costs made up 16 percent of the Forest Service’s annual budget. In 2016, for the first time, more than half of that budget — 52 percent — will be dedicated to wildfire suppression.

Imagine if the cost side of your business or family budget changed so dramatically. If it did, you would need to quickly alter the revenue side as well, or sacrifice so many other things you used to pay for without struggling.

And the Forest Service estimates that, if budgeting status quo remains in place, by 2025 more than 67 percent of its spending will be on fighting fires, with no attendant uptick in revenue for the other work Americans have for over a century expected from the stewards of our wilderness areas. That work includes, along with the occasional ranger on the trail looking out for the needs of hikers, programs that can help prevent fires before they have started and the maintenance of campgrounds. The Forest Service also notes that thousands of private-sector jobs and billions of dollars in consumer spending on recreation are at least peripherally related to its ongoing work protecting 193 million acres of forests and grasslands.

The cleanup will cost $9,000 to remove the mold and an unknown amount to repair the damage, Crosbie said.

“This is an emergency repair so we will be using funds that have been budgeted for other purposes and likely seeking retroactive funding at the special Town Meeting,” Crosbie said.

ServiceMaster has yet to identify the exact type of mold, but Crosbie said, “It is not the infamous ‘black mold.’”

The Centers for Disease Control says overexposure to mold of any type can cause similar health issues including sinus congestion, respiratory problems, sneezing, cough, skin and eye irritation and asthma.

Much of the station’s second floor has been closed to firefighters during the mold removal including the kitchen, the laundry, bathroom and shower and parts of the day room, Crosbie said.

Most of the damage occurred along the station’s back wall and ServiceMaster is testing other areas in the station for mold.

Crosbie said the mold currently posed no health threat to firefighters.

Last month, the city hosted a grand opening of its newest fire station in Shady Hollow, South Austin. The existing station was once part of the Manchaca Fire Department.

And it’s already impacting response times in Austin.

In June, the city discovered that AFD clocked an eight-minute response time to about 85 percent of emergency calls. Last year, the department set a goal to improve that number by three percent, but fell short.

Firefighters blame the city’s bumper-to-bumper traffic and the growth of its border, which makes the distance to emergencies farther.

The department is also facing a shortage of firefighters. So it proposed to the city council to open more stations. City leaders agreed.

The new Shady Hollow station opened up four years ahead of schedule. A second station in South Austin is set to open in two years.

AFD said it is already seeing response times to 911 calls improve.

Fire Station 2, a 58-year-old structure, was originally designed to be an unoccupied volunteer substation. Though the station was renovated about 25 years ago to convert it to year-round use for career firefighters, it still can only house two firefighters at a time.

Kanterman is hoping to revitalize the station to the point where, in the future, it could possibly increase its shift capacity from two to four firefighters — and possibly even six even further down the line.

However, while Kanterman says that abandonment of the station isn’t in the cards, the towns other options for the station are quickly dwindling.

At the latest meeting of the Fire Station 2 Building Committee this week, Facilities and Energy Management Director Chris Burney updated the committee on the progress being made to ameliorate the building’s two main problem areas — a safe water source and an adequate septic system.

The station’s well was declared contaminated nearly ten years ago, and ever since the station has been using two 2,000-gallon tanks for water purposes. While this source of water is potable, the firefighters prefer to drink bottled water, and overall the situation is wholly unsustainable.

To solve this problem, former Fire Commissioner Aaron Nachbar (who is also on the building committee) has been charged with finding an alternative well in the area.