The fire department is doing much more than just putting out fires around town these days.
Fire Chief Kevin Clifford tells CHSJ News they've been inspecting vacant buildings to measure how dangerous they are if a fire should break out and continue to do so.
Clifford says, in some of these buildings, the floors have actually been cut out by scavengers looking for anything of value to take and the the fire department has to be aware of that.
The Chief says it's much more dangerous fighting blazes in unoccupied buildings which could be literally falling apart but he stresses not all of the 115 to 120 vacant buildings in the city are in such bad shape, they all have to be demolished.