New sleeping quarters for Tubac Fire District under fire after being built with no permit

TUBAC, AZ (Tucson News Now) - The Tubac Fire District failed an inspection with their newly built sleeping areas inside fire station one.

The changes were made without a permit.

"We didn't get a permit. That's on me. My bad. The rooms are beautiful but they have some issues," said Fire Captain Kevin Keeley.

Also, the rooms were built without two things firefighters say are necessary to make a room fire safe. The two rooms don't have a secondary exit and smoke detectors, though the smoke detectors have since been installed.

These issues were brought to light during an inspection of the whole station by Santa Cruz County.

"We're looking at a number of solutions and we'll get it right," Keeley said.

Firefighters working out of Fire Station One have been sleeping in dilapidated trailers for the last several years. They were leftovers from the relief efforts with hurricane Katrina. The rooms were supposed to be a safer and cleaner replacement.

Until the issues with the rooms are fixed, firefighters are sleeping in another area inside the station.

Keeley said they're waiting on a full inspection report from the county and said the problems with the rooms aren't the only ones they will likely have to address.

"If you had a facility that goes back to the 1960s. I'm pretty sure there's going to be several other issues on there that we're going to have to look at," Keeley said.

Tucson News Now reached out to Santa Cruz county for more details on the inspection but have yet to hear their response.

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