A new burn building on the Jefferson College Hillsboro campus will not only assist the training of students in its fire science program, but also firefighters from around the county.
The recently installed firefighter training facility on the northern end of the Hillsboro campus cost a total of $631,841.61 between site preparation and construction (by Boyer Building & Design of Farmington for $196,431.61) and the burn building physical structure (from the Draeger company for $435,410).
The structure is three stories tall and 1,120 square feet in size. It reaches a height of 29 feet, three inches and is 47 feet long.
“I’m really excited at how it turned out,” said Chris DeGeare, the college’s vice president of academic affairs. “It came out exactly as we’d envisioned. I’m very pleased with the work the contractors did. And Draeger, who builds and fabricates these big burn buildings, they did exactly what the vision was. I couldn’t be happier with the final product.”
He said the facility allows firefighters to train for real-life situations in a controlled atmosphere to go along with what they learn in a classroom.
“When they’re going out to actually do their practical skills, they’ll have this building where they can literally catch it on fire,” DeGeare said. “It’s not just putting smoke in there. They’re putting in wood and burning wood and maintaining and controlling the fire.
“They’ll be able to wear all their breathing apparatus so they can safely navigate a smoke-filled building, practice retrieving dummies from the building just like you would pull somebody from a live fire. They’ll be able to do training and rappelling down the side of the building. All of the things that firefighters need to do in the field, they can do in a safe, controlled environment.”
He said the burn building allows the college to offer a facility for training it has not previously had.
“It’s just a major step forward in fire science training,” DeGeare said. “We’ve had some capacity to offer this live simulation in the past, but now we can do really advanced training with live fires. It’s just really exciting what that will mean for our students and for the fire districts across the county.”
The Jefferson College Board of Trustees at a Feb. 12 meeting voted 5-0 to approve an agreement with the Jefferson County Emergency Services Training Academy (JCESTA) on a shared-use framework for use of the burn building. Board member Steve Meinberg did not attend the meeting.
JCESTA, which is composed of county firefighting entities working together to provide firefighter training, contributed $50,000 toward the cost of the burn building.
Brian Gaudet, Hillsboro Fire Protection District chief and a member of the JCESTA Board of Directors, said his organization has worked with Jefferson College in the past and JCESTA members appreciate working with the college on such projects.
“Obviously, we have a memorandum of understanding with the college in regard to fire science training,” Gaudet said. “That goes back a long time. We’ve helped with the direction of the program of the Area Technical School fire science training (at the college).
“We deeply appreciate and look forward to strengthening our relationship with Jefferson College,” he said.
Gaudet added he is impressed with the new burn building. “It’s an excellent, top-class facility that will train generations of firefighters for years to come.”
He noted that firefighters need to keep up with their training.
“We function as one department when we’re on a scene,” Gaudet said. “The (combined) training increases the ability to bring everyone together. This is also a huge benefit to the taxpayer, because we’re not all having to buy our own training facilities.
“Training is a never-ending task for firefighters to maintain their skills and learn new techniques. There are continuing education requirements firefighters must meet every year.”
Jan Johnson, Jefferson College associate dean of business, social sciences and public services, said the burn building will help the college fire science program prepare students for firefighting careers.
“This (fire sciences) program not only creates career opportunities in firefighting and emergency services, but it also enhances public safety across our region by preparing skilled, certified responders ready to protect lives and property,” Johnson said. “Through rigorous coursework, practical labs and real-world experiences, our students develop the professionalism, teamwork and leadership that make them invaluable assets to the departments and communities they will serve.”
She said she expects firefighters to start training in the burn building soon, but no dates for training have been scheduled yet.
DeGeare said Jefferson College worked with JCESTA leaders when considering obtaining a burn building and it is an example of the college and the organization’s partnership.
“(The JCESTA donation) is just the latest in a really strong partnership that we’ve had for years,” he said. “We brought all of the chiefs from the fire districts together, all part of this Emergency Services Training Academy, and just talked about how we could make this the best program possible.
“So, they’ve helped us with guest lecturers and their employees serve as our instructors. It’s really been a strong partnership. It only made sense to continue this partnership with this training facility so that our students could take advantage of it, but also all the firefighters across the county. They’ll come here and use it just as much as our students do.”
He does not foresee problems in students in the college’s fire science program and fire district personnel sharing use of the facility.
“We’ll have plenty for availability for all the fire districts to be able to use it,” DeGeare said. “If (the college) is hosting a burn training day, they could have the building set up and on fire for our high school students in the morning and then for their adult students in the afternoon or whatever, but we’ll have plenty of opportunities to get people through there.”