The soil below the city-owned spot selected for a new fire station in north Augusta isn’t up to the task of bearing the weight of the new station and the heavy fire trucks that would be kept there.

Rather than abandon the lot and plans to build a station there within a year, city staff recommends spending about $500,000 to install structural steel pilings extending at least 60 feet down to provide a solid base for the fire station and the concrete floors that will bear the weight of water-filled firetrucks and ambulances.

City Manager William Bridgeo said there were no signs the soil wasn't up to the task of supporting the weight of a fire station until the city had test borings done as part of the engineering for the site which revealed "soupy" clay soil.

"They did test pits where they went 10 feet down, and it's soup," Bridgeo said of the discovery of soil conditions at the site off Leighton Road across the street from its intersection with Anthony Avenue. "Then they went 20 feet down, still soup. Then they brought in the (drilling equipment) and went down 30, 40, 50, then 60 feet before they finally hit bedrock."

If the building weren't a fire station where heavy firetrucks will be kept, the pilings might not be needed, as the soil may be stable enough to support lighter-duty structures such as a home or one- or two-story office buildings, said Bridgeo and Ralph St. Pierre, finance director and assistant city manager. But engineers expressed concern the concrete floor of the new station could crack if built on the unstable soil with heavy firetrucks constantly rolling in and out of the station and across the floors.

"When you put a massive firetruck with a tankful of water rolling back and forth, back and forth, there's a good chance you're going to end up with cracks," Bridgeo said. "And this building is being built for 75 to 100 years of use, so it's prudent to get it right from the get-go."

The projected budget of $3.6 million for the new station doesn't include the recently discovered need for about $500,000 worth of pilings to stabilize the site.

For more information, view www.centralmaine.com

The City of Sacramento has increased fire and ambulance services in Natomas and South Sacramento. 

The Sacramento Fire Department has added a ladder truck in Natomas and an ambulance on Franklin Boulevard.

Sac Fire's Chris Harvey says previously, the closest ladder truck to the area was three-and-a-half miles.

"The importance of adding a truck out there is we now have several buildings that are over three, four, five stories tall. So, in event of major fire, you need a truck company in order to have that ladder to get up on the roof."

Harvey says some of the city's ambulances are responding to too many calls.

"The national standard for call volume for an ambulance should be right around 3,000-to-3,500 calls per -year, per-ambulance and we have four ambulances in the city of Sacramento that ran over 6,000 calls last year."

Four other ambulances responded to 5,000 calls last year.

The ambulance and two firefighters per shift will staff Station 57 at a cost of about half-a-million dollars annually.

For more information, view www.capradio.com

Public works crews were on the scene in Poway Monday, after a sinkhole opened up underneath a fire truck in the afternoon.

The truck was at a red light at Pomerado Road and Twin Peaks Road when three firefighters on board felt the vehicle shift. They soon realized the right front tire had popped through the asphalt and the truck was sunk up to the frame. Emergency crews were called to the scene and were able to pull the truck out.

No injuries were reported.

"We are probably very fortunate that it was a fire truck that popped through the hole and not a private citizen in their car," said Fire Chief Jon Canavan. 

Crews were expected to return to the sinkhole, which was was five feet wide and eight feet deep, in a few days to make permanent repairs. They believe a pipe separated at a connecting pipe.

Geologists report that El Nino rains are agitating the ground under the streets and warn that more sinkholes will continue to form across the county.

For more information, view cbs8.com

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For more information, visit www.mcbfire.com or www.hgacbuy.com.