Marietta’s Fire Station 1 at the back of City Hall needs more space than it currently has. The city has been exploring the station’s expansion, and details are beginning to fall into place, MariettaTimes.com reported.

The fire department is seeking an expansion that would include space on the first floor for oversized bays for fire boats and equipment and space on the second floor for living quarters, restrooms, storage, showers, living room, laundry and kitchen area, the report said.

Initial plans for expansion have been drawn and construction could start next summer, according to the report. The sticking point: how to pay for it. At the November 29 session of council’s Fire and Police Committee, a fire official reported that the estimated construction cost that came with the initial drawings is $2.7 million.

The fire official asked that the city put $1.3 million in American Rescue Plan Funds toward the project, the report said. The remainder, he said, could come from a 30-year loan paid from the fire department’s share of a .15% income tax increase passed by voters in 2018. The increase was specifically designated for fire departments and streets, according to the report.

There will be a second part of the architecture and engineering proposal for detailed design, permitting, bidding and construction management. After that, a city official said he would like to see a timetable where there is a request for bid proposals in March, bids opened in May, and a construction start date set for July 1, the report said.

A planned fire station along Maybank Highway will cost $6 million more than originally planned, but the city of Charleston says it’s moving forward with it, Live5News.com reported.

Part of that cost has to do with the soil found on the site, the report said. The city said the soil samples they’ve gotten show they need to add pilings underneath the building’s foundation to support it in case of an earthquake.

Along with the poor soil conditions, the city said extra features added to the proposed building and increased construction costs have all contributed to the higher price tag, according to the report.

The fire station is scheduled to have three bays that would fit two companies, but extra features could be cut to keep costs down, the report said. Construction could start at the end of 2023 or the start of 2024.

Chesterfield County Fire and EMS hosted a formal public dedication December 2 at the site of the new Magnolia Green Fire Station 25, according to a post on the department’s Facebook page.

As the first new fire station in Chesterfield since 2015, Magnolia Green Station 25 protects a population of 22,000 in the Cosby, Moseley and Skinquarter areas and covers a response area of 69 square miles—one of the largest in the county—including over 7,400 residences.

“To give you some perspective of the size of this area, the cities of Norfolk, Richmond, and Washington, D.C. would each fit in the geographical area that Station 25 is responsible for,” Fire Chief Loy Senter told the crowd.

By AUDREY McAVOY Associated Press

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — A handful of centenarian survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor are expected to gather at the scene of the Japanese bombing on Wednesday to commemorate those who perished 81 years ago.

That’s fewer than in recent years, when a dozen or more traveled to Hawaii from across the country to pay their respects at the annual remembrance ceremony.

From the Fire Engineering Vault: Pearl Harbor and World War II

Part of the decline reflects the dwindling number of survivors as they age. The youngest active-duty military personnel on Dec. 7, 1941, would have been about 17, making them 98 today. Many of those still alive are at least 100.

About 2,400 servicemen were killed in the bombing, which launched the U.S. into World War II. The USS Arizona alone lost 1,177 sailors and Marines, nearly half the death toll.

Robert John Lee recalls being a 20-year-old civilian living at his parent’s home on the naval base where his father ran the water pumping station. The home was just about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) across the harbor from where the USS Arizona was moored on battleship row.

The first explosions before 8 a.m. woke him up, making him think a door was slamming in the wind. He got up to yell for someone to shut the door only to look out the window at Japanese planes dropping torpedo bombs from the sky.

He saw the hull of the USS Arizona turn a deep orange-red after an aerial bomb hit it.

“Within a few seconds, that explosion then came out with huge tongues of flame right straight up over the ship itself — but hundreds of feet up,” Lee said in an interview Monday after a boat tour of the harbor.

He still remembers the hissing sound of the fire.

Sailors jumped into the water to escape their burning ships and swam to the landing near Lee’s house. Many were covered in the thick, heavy oil that coated the harbor. Lee and his mother used Fels-Naptha soap to help wash them. Sailors who were able to boarded small boats that shuttled them back to their vessels.

“Very heroic, I thought,” Lee said of them.

Lee joined the Hawaii Territorial Guard the next day, and later the U.S. Navy. He worked for Pan American World Airways for 30 years after the war.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs doesn’t have statistics for how many Pearl Harbor survivors are still living. But department data show that of the 16 million who served in World War II, only about 240,000 were alive as of August and some 230 die each day.

There were about 87,000 military personnel on Oahu at the time of the attack, according to a rough estimate compiled by military historian J. Michael Wenger.

The ceremony sponsored by the Navy and the National Park Service will feature a moment of silence at 7:55 a.m., the minute the attack began, and a missing-man-formation flyover.

Navy and park service officials are due to deliver remarks.