Training facility not just for firefighters
Published Saturday November 7th, 2009
Dressed in black and swathed in dull green camouflage ponchos, members of Fredericton's emergency response team assembled outside the $1.9-million fire-training tower at Two Nations Crossing.
The team was preparing for a briefing from their training officer as they ready for a mock hostage-rescue attempt recently.
Armed with pepper spray and paintball weapons, the emergency responders were preparing to free the victim in the staged drama. The setting for the drill was the four-storey training tower.
Randy Tracy, who has been hired by the city to market the fire-training facility, said the type of training the officers were undertaking shows the versatility of the complex.
Not only is the tower equipped with gas-fired burn simulators so that firefighters can train, the tower, with its moveable walls, allows a training officer to go in and configure rooms and spaces that force officers to enter the building, assessing each footstep as they go.
Tracy said it shows how police agencies can brush up on their tactics just as well as firefighters.
"The tower is really a public-safety training facility," Tracy said.
Recently, 48 volunteer firefighters from fire departments around the capital region were able to complete their live-fire training requirements in order to achieve their Level 1 certifications.
Without that certification, the volunteer firefighters wouldn't be ready to respond to an emergency fire situation.
"That's pretty exciting," Tracy said. "We're not just a state-of-the-art training facility. We are also recognized for having some of the highest qualified training officers in the province."
The city's marketing efforts are ongoing, Tracy said, but at least three additional firefighting organizations have contacted the city about training opportunities in the near future.
"We have some other soon-to-be-announced marketing initiatives that have been successful for us as well," Tracy said.
City and Holland Collage representatives from Prince Edward Island have been holding talks about a strategic partnership to use the facility.
The college, which provides accredited Maritime police and firefighter training, and the city hope to work together on cadet training for aspiring firefighters.
It costs about $2,500 per day to use the fire, heat and smoke simulator.
There's a scale of fees, ranging from $250 per day if you only want to rent one of the classrooms at the new fire station on the north side of the city to $1,000 per day for using the outdoor water-extraction training pit for automobile rescue practices.
More City & Region
Search Articles
More CE Network Sites & Partners:
