A major project aimed at giving volunteer firefighters more hands-on training closer to home is taking shape in Antigonish County.
The Antigonish Area Fire and Rescue Training Center has reached another milestone, with a large concrete pad now poured for what will become its live-burn training facility.
Adrian Van de Sande, chief of the Antigonish County Volunteer Fire Department and president of the training centre, says all of the initial groundwork is now complete.
That includes the driveway, culverts and other civil work, followed by the pouring of a concrete pad measuring approximately 70 by 65 feet.
“The next stage is our sea cans coming in next week,” Van de Sande says.
Those sea containers will be modified into a realistic training structure. Plans call for stairs, railings and reinforcement, along with an engineered layout designed specifically for firefighter training.
A company from Ontario will install a propane-driven live-burn system, complete with its own control room. The facility will allow firefighters to train on two levels and practice responding to fires in different rooms, giving them experience in conditions that more closely resemble a real structure fire.
For local firefighters, the need is significant.
Van de Sande says several members of his department have been waiting for Level One training, which includes live-fire experience and prepares firefighters to enter the “red zone” during a structure fire.
He says eight members currently need that level of training, but there hasn’t been a suitable place to provide it locally.
The new centre is expected to help solve that problem while also reducing the financial burden on volunteer departments.
Van de Sande says Level One training previously cost about $2,200 per firefighter, before travel, accommodations and other expenses. He says the new centre hopes to offer the same training for a few hundred dollars per person.
That could mean more than savings for fire departments.
For volunteers, it could mean less time spent travelling and away from their families while completing their required training.
The centre has received support from both the County and Town of Antigonish, along with provincial funding. Plans also call for an approximately 8,000-square-foot building, including classrooms, showers and a kitchenette, with hopes of breaking ground in October.
And the facility won’t be just for Antigonish County.
Van de Sande says it will be open to fire departments that want to use it, including the 28 departments that make up the local Strait Area mutual aid system.
For a region that relies heavily on volunteer firefighters, the new training centre could provide a much-needed combination of practical training, lower costs and less time on the road.
