By Janis Ramsa
The Toronto Star
ONTARIO, Canada — Barrie Fire Chief John Lynn is making the case for a local training facility.
After making a presentation on the facility in September, council asked him to update them on the cost of training crews. Lynn brought back the figure of $1 million in costs to ensure minimum training for his 124 staff members next year.
“Two days of training each year is considered industry minimum best practice,” wrote Lynn. Add to that eight days of hazardous material training, high angle training, confined space training, and 10 days of trench rescue training and the bill grows quickly.
“The use of abandoned or donated buildings for live fire training is not a suitable solution because they aren’t built to standards for practical training, and we need those safety features so firefighters aren’t injured while training,” he said.
After the death of firefighter Bill Wilkins in 2003, the Coroner recommended more training facilities in the province.
As of now, the closest facility is at the Ontario Fire College in Gravenhurst. Local fire departments used to go to the facilities at Canadian Forces Base Borden, but “Borden is the fire training ground for all of Canada and they are not allowing municipalities to utilize the facility,” said Lynn.
And when there’s training, the department has to rent the building and pay for travel and overtime for firefighters.
“Because of minimum staffing requirements to ensure the city is protected, this training can only be accomplished with offering overtime to firefighters on their days off.
Rental of a facility is estimated at $186,000 per year, said Lynn.
But it’s such a “hodge-podge” of availability, the Barrie department recently booked four training days, and only one-third of staff went
“With our own facility we could achieve more than the minimum standard and will enhance firefighter and public safety,” he said.
And with a training spot in Barrie, firefighters wouldn’t have to travel and could practice on their own equipment.
And neighbouring fire departments or groups like Georgian College could rent the facility, which would create a stream of revenue into the city’s coffers.
Lynn said a lack of training facilities is a problem across the country, and if Barrie built a spot, it would be used regularly. “The time we get to book now is very limited, and we’re booking six months in advance,” he said. Surrounding municipalities could either pitch in financially to building a training centre, or else would support the project by renting it out once it’s built.
Lynn is suggesting a training facility be built with the new fire station in the southwest end of town, in the Holly area. That project would cost approximately $14 million, though he said the project is still probably five years from inception.
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