The sign on the front door of the Ridgeville Volunteer Fire Department Station 1 tells the story.  It reads "This building has been deemed unsafe for human habitation..."  It was officially condemned yesterday.

"It's an old building age just caught up with it," said Fire Chief Herbert Cummings.

Inside the facility you can see mold growing in several locations, cracks can be found everywhere and holes are all around.  For the past 15 years firefighters say they've tried to get the town to fix up the building. 

"It infuriates me," Cummings said.

But according to town officials the reason nothing was done was because of a lack of money.

"Small town, small money," said Mayor James Williams.

Mayor Williams acknowledged the issue and says for the immediate future the fire department will only operate in Station 2 which is about a mile down the road. 

"It needed to be torn down about 8 years ago," he said.

A new department would cost about 300,000 dollars.  The mayor hopes to see one built in the next 2 years.  Firefighters say operating out of only 1 building will affect response time by about 5 minutes.

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