23 March 2008

NSW fire station 'built wrong way round'

A $2 million state-of-the-art fire station in Bathurst has been the wrong way round, making it impractical and dangerous, the NSW Fire Brigades Union says.

Work on the station on Alexander St was begun with much fanfare, with former NSW emergency services minister Tony Kelly describing the taxpayer funded station as state-of-the-art, as he turned the first sod.

Things had soured by the station's opening on March 14, however.

A building bungle means the facility has been built the wrong way round, forcing fire engines to drive out the back door rather than front, News Ltd newspapers reported.

But using the back exit has caused problems for drivers, who have been forced to make dog-leg manoeuvres to get onto the road.

The new station is impractical and dangerous, the union says.

"Imagine a 20-tonne truck doing a dog-leg on ice at 2am while responding to an emergency," union state secretary Simon Flynn said.

"It is a totally ridiculous situation. We actually think that the government has built the wrong station - it can't be possible that this is the same building that we saw in the plans. It is a total stuff up."

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