Fire training to get a lot more fun

A playground for firefighters is taking shape behind Coeur d’Alene’s Fire Station No. 2.

Deputy Fire Chief Jim Washko gets a cheek-busting smile as he shows off a five-story steel training tower where firefighters can rappel in a 60-foot elevator shaft and save a 165-pound dummy from burning rooms.

“This is going to be so much fun,” Washko said as he stood on the roof of the facility, funded by part of a $7 million public safety bond voters approved in 2005.

When Ginno Construction wraps up the project this month, the facility at Ramsey Road and Kathleen Avenue will become a training ground for police and fire agencies throughout the region.

From the roof of the tower, Washko has a bird’s-eye view of the rest of the training center. Several tunnels run from the tower’s basement to a T-shaped concrete trench. That’s where the city’s Urban Search and Rescue team, composed of 20 Coeur d’Alene firefighters, will practice rescuing victims from trenches and tunnels.

“Before we’d have to dig a trench in the dirt,” said Coeur d’Alene Fire Capt. Lee Holbrook, who oversees the urban team. It’s one of two such teams in Idaho that trains for rescues involving collapsed buildings, trenches, confined spaces and ropes.

Holbrook said the team will still train in dirt trenches, but the concrete trench will be the best and safest place for trainees to hone their skills.

The five-story tower will provide needed practice for firefighters in a town with a growing number of high-rise buildings, Washko said.

Other agencies from throughout the area have inquired about using the training facility, Washko said. It will be three months before the facility is ready for use.

“I can’t wait,” he said.

He envisions SWAT teams storming the stairs in the tower and firing off paintball guns.

A smoke machine will create realistic conditions for firefighters searching for survivors. Fires can be set and fought in three rooms designed to withstand heat up to 2,200 degrees.

Paved roadways and intersections on the property will serve as the scene of staged crashes, allowing emergency workers to practice removing victims and controlling traffic.

Eventually, more training props could be added, including an overturned semi tanker truck, a wrecked helicopter and a giant pile of rubble where rescuers and cadaver dogs could search for “victims.”

Coeur d’Alene firefighters have trained in Spokane and Spokane Valley, Holbrook said, with the city paying facility fees and overtime.

Residents have offered houses for practice burns, but Washko said it involves too much red tape to deal with federal clean air restrictions, traffic concerns and other potential issues.

“Now we will be able to train pretty much anytime we want,” he said. “Our guys are jazzed.”

Kootenai County Sheriff’s Lt. Dan Mattos said the Kootenai County Special Response Unit anticipates training at the new facility.

The multi-agency tactical team now practices where it can, Mattos said.

“We have trained anywhere from Boy Scout camps to abandoned buildings to the Fernan Gun and Rod Club,” Mattos said.

The Fire Department is developing agreements with other agencies to govern use of its new training center and cover maintenance costs.

“The guys would come out here and light this thing on fire every day if they could,” Washko said.

About $2.2 million of the bond money has gone toward the new training center as well as improvements to the fire station. Space has been added to the living quarters, with new dorm rooms for firefighters and a remodeled kitchen. And for the first time, there are separate men’s and women’s restrooms.

The department plans to hold classes and conferences in a new classroom. More restrooms were added – concrete and steel so a simple hose down is all that’s needed to wash away the soot and grime left behind.

Another new building houses exercise equipment for firefighters, Coeur d’Alene Police and other city employees. There’s more classroom space and a three-bay garage to store equipment.