Callaway County ambulance facility to be rebuilt

<p>Helen Wilbers/For the News Tribune</p><p>There are blue skies ahead for the new Callaway County Ambulance District headquarters. The damaged main building has been demolished following an April 2019 fire and will be rebuilt, and the adjacent apparatus bay is well underway.</p>

Helen Wilbers/For the News Tribune

There are blue skies ahead for the new Callaway County Ambulance District headquarters. The damaged main building has been demolished following an April 2019 fire and will be rebuilt, and the adjacent apparatus bay is well underway.

Demolition is underway at the burnt Callaway County Ambulance District's new headquarters.

But the razing is just part one of a plan to rebuild the facility, CCAD Director Charles Anderson said.

"It's moving on," he said Wednesday morning. "We finally were able to reach an agreement with the insurance company regarding the demolition of the damaged property."

The structure at 2614 Fairway Drive in Fulton, which was still under construction, was gutted during a fire in mid-April. No one was injured, and the building was unoccupied at the time. A Missouri fire marshal later determined the fire had been caused by a lightning strike.

The building's main structure sustained severe damage, but its foundation wasn't harmed. Following a lengthy negotiation with insurers, CCAD and the construction contractors have a plan to move forward.

"We'll demolish the entire burned portion of the building (except the foundation)," Anderson said. "Originally, there had been discussion about trying to salvage part of that, but we felt that was probably not the best course of action."

An architect has worked on preparing revised plans to rebuild, which the constructor will soon price out. Anderson said he hopes to have those figures by the next CCAD board meeting in August.

"The insurer will cover rebuild of fire-damaged portion, whatever was there prior to the fire," he said. "We don't know what that amount's going to be."

During this process, construction has continued on the apparatus bay.

"The concrete's poured, and masons are laying blocks," Anderson said. "We're finally starting to see some progress."

The new timeline for project completion hasn't yet been finalized. Anderson estimated finishing touches should happen in late spring 2020.

In other CCAD news, during Tuesday evening's Board of Directors meeting, the board approved an automatic mutual aid agreement with Cole County's ambulance district. During a call for an incident occurring on Missouri River Bridge, or calls involving the Jefferson City Fire Department doing water rescue in the Missouri River, Cole County will automatically respond.

The agreement will go to Cole County Commission for their approval, Anderson said.