Warren County to get its first fire training facility

“This facility will be used extensively to deliver state-of-the-art fire and EMS training for the students of the Warren County Career Center, as well as firefighters from our collaborative Warren County Fire Departments,” said Kim Fladung, WCCC director of facilities.

In 2012, the school with the support of the Warren County Fire Chiefs Association received a state grant to conduct a feasibility study to improve training accessibility for its students in high school fire science and adult public safety courses, as well as all the county’s firefighters.

According to the study, the $1.2-million facility could pay for itself within just a few years, due to the lack of any fire training facilities in the county and the great need of the 14 area fire departments.

“The facility will be available for rental by area fire departments and law enforcement agencies for training. This is not restricted just to Warren County. It will also be available for rent to private entities that may want to do fire safety training for their employees,” Fladung said.

WCCC firefighter students and Warren County’s fire departments must travel to neighboring counties to rent facilities for required fire and rescue training for certification.

“Currently when the fire curriculum calls for live burn training for our secondary or adult education students, we need to rent a facility outside the county and transport our students for this training. This means they only receive the minimum required live burn training to meet state educational standards,” Fladung said. “By having a facility on site, our students will be able to receive more live burn training over the minimum standards, thus increasing their experience as part of the training program. In addition, the five-story training tower will allow our students to train on site for high angle and rope rescue.”

Area fire departments experience the same drawbacks as these students.

“When providing this training, they often have to take their departments out of service and rent a facility outside the county to obtain this training. This can be costly and logistically difficult,” Fladung said. “By being able to use our facility to train inside our county, many departments can remain in-service while training, requiring less coverage from neighboring departments when they go out of county.”

WCCC Superintendent Rick Smith said the board decided to move forward with the project after review by a community-based facilities committee last year. That committee recommended the school proceed with the fire training facility and tower due to the projected return on investment, calling it a a win-win for students and the county fire departments.

Conger Construction Group in Lebanon was selected as the general contractor for the project, which is slated for completion Sept. 1. The building is manufactured by WHP Training Towers in Overland Park, Kan. A crew will be on site to erect the building.