Fluvanna firefighters stuck with dangerous sewage issue at station

FLUVANNA COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) - Volunteer firefighters in Fluvanna County are stuck with a stinky, dangerous mess.

Fire Chief Andrew Pullen says a contractor was at the Kents Store Volunteer Fire Company for a minor water leak. However, when he checked the cameras, it was anything but clean water.

“We have cameras there that we’re able to access remotely, so I access them remotely and discovered that it was not, in fact, a minor water leak,” Pullen said Wednesday, February 1. “There was black water pouring into the building and from the septic truck that they had brought there.”

The station asked the contractor to clean up the mess, but Pullen says the county got in the way.

“They fired the contractor that we trusted and was providing us the only line of communication we had. They fired him yesterday,” Pullen said.

Firefighters have been stuck with the mess for a week now, and want the county to clean it up.

“My members are going to take a leave of absence,” Pullen said. “I’m not asking my guys to be in a firehouse or answer calls out of a firehouse in these kinds of conditions.”

Pullen says a third-party assessment confirms the biohazard, and he says that it is simply not safe for them.

“We’re expected to continue to eat, sleep, work out, answer calls, whatever the case may be in a building that’s not cleaned properly,” the fire chief said.

NBC29 reached out to the county administrator for an interview, but were told he was in meetings all day.

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