"We've actually already started construction there," said Reinhardt. "They've poured some of the pads, and they're starting to put up some of the framing today (Thursday, Apr. 6)."

According to Reinhardt, the station will house CFR's administrative offices, which are currently in Cullman City Hall, and will be the base of operations for first response/pumper engine 517 and the department's new rescue truck no. 3. The rescue truck is a medical response vehicle; the engine is a multi-purpose platform equipped for medical response, firefighting, automobile crash response and numerous other tasks. CFR Training Officer Brian Bradberry added that the new station will also house the department's hazmat and technical rescue trailers.

"Due to the tragedy that happened, we have a new truck to take its place," MFD assistant fire chief Ricky Leister says. "We're going to continue to live on and remember and move forward."

But next door, in the Fire Prevention Bureau, which is tasked with annually inspecting all commercial buildings and certain residential properties, the staff was stuck with an older database that its users describe as a clumsy, incomplete repository of city properties.

"It's been cumbersome from the get-go," said acting Fire Chief Mark Hoffmann, adding that city officials have not paid for system upgrades over the years. "It's not particularly user-friendly for people who enter data. You can't seamlessly go window to window."

The system's deficiencies may have contributed to lapses in inspections of dangerous buildings. Three years after its report castigating the building department, the Alameda County grand jury came back with another censure, this time of the Fire Department, finding that it was not inspecting more than a third of all buildings required to be reviewed annually under California law.