Fire training facility planned

CELINA- The Darke County Fire Chiefs Association plans to construct a $1 million-plus live fire training facility in Greenville that will be accessible to area fire departments.

The non-profit association was established in 1984 to foster unity among departments. It's made up of 21 fire departments serving all of Darke County and portions of Mercer, Miami, Preble and Shelby counties.

In the past, fire departments had often acquired abandoned structures and set them ablaze for fire training. However, due to stricter safety regulations, financial restraints, logistical challenges and an uncontrolled environment, the practice is on the wane.

Greenville Fire Chief Russ Thompson said the closest live fire training facilities in the area are located in Lima and Springfield and are largely booked up.

"The closest ones would be Clark State in Springfield, Apollo up in Lima," Thompson said. "That's why we did what we did. There's no opportunity close to us to have live fire training. All of them have wait times. There's always a wait time."

The facility will be fabricated from six 20-feet new shipping containers and six 40-feet shipping containers and replicate a two-story residential home with a garage and a training tower.

It will feature a class B propane training room on each floor and a class A ordinary combustibles training room on the first floor.

"Companies that use it will actually be able to do other stuff, like search and rescue, roof ventilations, apparatus placement, deploying hose lines," Thompson said. "It's just an endless list of everything we do on a normal structure fire."

Southwest Mercer Fire District Chief Kim Day said the proposed facility will be of great use for area departments.

"We will utilize it," he said. "It is needed. It would be nice if every county was able to have one, but with the cost of building and maintaining it, it's tough to do."

The proposed live fire training facility is estimated to cost between $1-1.25 million.

Since the project's inception last year, the association has raised $250,000 in local donations. Also, the group secured a $750,000 strategic community grant as a part of state capital budget that was passed in late June

"A lot of it's going to come down to our infrastructure costs as far as where we build the facility at," Thompson said.

There are currently three proposed sites in Greenville - a vacant lot on Markwith Avenue, a lot north of North Park off of Wagner Avenue and a lot north of Greenville Transit System off of Kitchen Aid Way.

Departments in the association will have full access to the training facility, Thompson said. It will also be made available to other area departments for a minimal fee.

The group has two years to spend the state funds, Thompson said.

"We're doing everything we can to get this accomplished inside of the two years," he said. "I think our goals are to actually have it accomplished within the next year."

For more information on the project, go to www.darkecountyfirechiefs.org/.