Volunteers Rebuild New Orlean's Hurricane Damaged Fire Houses

New Orleans, LA (AHN) - Fed up with waiting for the government to act some people have joined together to rebuild fire stations in New Orleans that were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Shortly after the hurricane, the Federal Emergency Management had estimated it would take 10 years to rebuild the fire stations there.

The lack of fire stations in some districts is slowing response time to fires, officials say.

According to the City of New Orleans government website, New Orleans has a Class II fire rating, which is the second highest rating, although the website doesn't say when the city received that rating. If the rating was given after 22 of the city's 33 fire stations were damaged or destroyed, that would indicate fire services for the city were in good shape now since it is the second highest rating.

But if that rating was given before Katrina struck, then there is no telling what the true fire rating of the city's fire department is now or how well property and lives are protected from fire there now.

Typically, city fire departments are inspected and rated every 15 years, so New Orleans may not have been rated since the Katrina damaged or destroyed two-thirds of its fire stations.

AHN called the New Orleans city fire department Thursday afternoon to ask for the date of the department's last fire rating inspection, but the man who answered the phone was unable to answer the question and transferred the call to the public relations department. That call went to voice mail and no one from the city of New Orleans called AHN back before deadline.

Some 22 of the city's 33 fire stations were damaged or destroyed by Katrina. After waiting for the government to act, an actor began action.

According to CNN news, actor Dennis Leary told CNN, "I gave up on ever hoping that politicians in this country -- local, state or federal -- would step in to help these guys."

The cause of firefighters is close to the actor's heart. Leary plays a firefighter on TV show "Rescue Me."

In his project, which is similar to the old-fashioned barn raisings where community members gathered to build a barn for someone else in the community, Leary has used his charitable foundation and gathered volunteers from the New Orleans Fire Department and the New York carpenter's union. Together they have rebuilt five fire stations so far and they plan to finish two more within the next few months.

One example of problems is that firefighters have had to store their fire gear in trailers instead of special dark lockers. The fire resistant properties of the protective gear firefighters wear is light sensitive, so storing the gear in a locker compromises the physical safety of the firefighters.

A district fire chief told CNN that having to retrieve gear from a trailer to suit up for a fire call and then lock the trailer again before they could leave was also slowing firefighters down in responding to fires.

According to the ISO fire rating website, the best rating is a Class 1, but better fire ratings primarily benefit commercial properties that can see significant cost savings if they have a better fire rating.

While the fire ratings of a fire department don't affect the insurance rates of a homeowner much if they are above a Class 7, they are more of a factor when an insurance company sets rates for policyholders that are retail, commercial and industrial businesses, government agencies, churches, and other non-profit organizations.

The primary benefit for New Orleans homeowners in having a better fire rating or in having all their fire stations rebuilt is a potentially quicker response time from the fire department if their house catches fire.