Johnson City fire crews are fighting more than fires this week. Firefighters at Fire Station #2 on Cherokee Road are dealing with the aftermath of a bed bug infestation. Crews noticed the tiny pests Monday.
"We pulled up the mattress and we se all the brown bugs all over the place," Johnson City Firefighter Adam Momberger said. "There were probably only 12 to 15 that we could see, but we knew there were more. The eggs were so small we couldn't see them."
After finding the critters under a mattress, the Johnson City Fire Department hired an exterminator to eliminate the problem. That pest control company sprayed the inside of the fire station. However, that was only part of the extermination. Exterminators also asked firefighters to remove all furniture that may have come in contact with the bugs.
"We've taken all the bedding, box springs out, the furniture, and removed that from the station," Johnson City Assistant Fire Chief Mark Finucane said.
Although bed bugs are not dangerous, the tiny bloodsuckers are quite the pests.
"Their meal is blood," Finucane said. "It would make it uncomfortable for the firefighters staying there and that's their home 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year."
Aside from potentially biting firefighters, the bugs also displaced crews from inside the station. Instead of sleeping in their beds, firefighters at Fire Station #2 will now sleep on cots for the next several nights. Those cots sit inside a trailer parked inside the station's garage. Exterminators will return to the fire station later this week to make sure the bugs are gone for good. When that is determined, the pest control company will give the city the green light to move new furniture back into the station, Finucane said.
In the meantime, firefighters are spending their time cleaning their turnout gear.
"Just washing everything as many times as you can in hot water," Momberger said.
Even though the bed bugs appear to be gone, firefighters are still scratching their heads, wondering how the bugs ended up at their station in the first place.
"We have no idea where (the bugs) came from," Momberger said. "We go to a lot of hotels and apartment buildings. We have no idea where this could have come from...it just makes you really queasy thinking about how (a bed bug) was sleeping with you for the last month probably."
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