BOISE, Idaho — Boise’s new fire training center is designed to give firefighters live fire training covering several different scenarios.
“We're pretty excited about this facility, we believe that our firefighters are the greatest asset we have and the facility is going to allow them to have many different facilities to practice their craft in a safe manner and really protect our citizens and make it a safer community,” said Boise Fire Chief Dennis Doan.
One of the burn buildings is laid out like a standard two story house. Burn materials are already inside the structure ready for firefighters. Upstairs there’s a long hallway with four rooms at the end simulating bedrooms. The ceiling tiles are made out of the same materials as the Space Shuttle heat shield tiles.
“We don't want the first time they fight a fire to be in somebody's home, and this allows us to do live fire training each and every,” Chief Doan said.
The tower is built to simulate a number of commercial buildings. There is a unit that simulates a typical business you might find in a strip mall. The storage area is built to burn.
In the upper floors you’ll find an apartment layout complete with a kitchen that cooks. There’s also a mock hotel where the bed catches fire along with the ceilings.
The facility is designed to raise the bar for the fire department.
“Our firefighters are excellent, we have one of the best fire department in the west, and we've been able to do that kind of by piece meal different buildings different ways of training and this provides a one stop shop where we can come and do all the training we need right here at this facility,” Chief Doan said.
For the fire chief, this is just the beginning.
“I'm already dreaming of phase two, phase three and phase four that we can partner with other people to make this a state fire academy that we can partner with public and private partnerships to create collapse search and rescue or maybe confined space rescue so I have lots of dreams for this facility,” Chief Doan said.
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