Chrisney preparing for new fire center to help erase training desert
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Chrisney is one of five communities in Indiana receiving funds to build a fire training facility in the second phase of the state’s Hub-and-Spoke Training plan. The state is investing $7.7 million in new fire sites within 30 miles or 45 minutes of volunteer and career departments to eliminate training deserts across Indiana.
Jim Perkins, volunteer fire department chief for the Spencer County town, said the facility will give his team the opportunity to do more training on a regular basis.
“Anytime that we would want to do a burn training, it would normally be in a house that was donated to us,” he said. “We’d have to go through a process of getting permits and making sure that the house was approved to burn, having to take off shingles and do things like that and having the house checked out for us.”
The first phase of the Hub-and-Spoke Training plan included fire training sites in Corydon, Rensselaer, Linton and Wabash. In the second phase, Hartford City, Washington Township, Paoli, Rushville and Chrisney were chosen for funding. On Oct. 10, the third phase was announced, adding Covington, Winchester, Vincennes, Seymour and Plainfield to the roster.
Steve Jones, Indiana State Fire Marshal, told Inside INdiana Business the order of selection for the new fire training sites was based on greatest impact in training desert areas.
“We had quite an area to fill in, especially in southern Indiana. They probably had the most training deserts,” he said. “My goal is to give them the ability to get trained and to make sure that they can be safe and they go home at the end of a run.”
“[The Chrisney fire center] gives us a place to train that’s qualified by the state,” added Mark Lautner with the Spencer County Emergency Management Agency. “We could never have built that ourselves without state funding and state grants.
Choosing Chrisney
Perkins said the idea to apply for the Hub-and-Spoke training plan stemmed from one of Spencer County’s fire chief meetings. The original concept was to place the training facility in the northern part of the county, but Perkins pushed for Chrisney to host the site.
“I spoke up knowing my department and how progressive that we have been in the last few years that my people would more than welcome the opportunity to be able to oversee that program and have that asset,” he said.
Perkins credits entities like the EMA and Spencer County Commissioner Heather Gries for supporting the fire training center initiative.
“It’s important that whenever we look at areas that we have a group in that area that the different government officials, the emergency managers, the fire chiefs, the fire departments, that they’re all willing to work together,” said Jones.
Gries arranged for Joel Thacker, former executive director of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, and John Shafer, director of the Indiana Fire and Public Safety Training Academy system, to visit Chrisney and discuss the project.
“There was a site available out on some county property, and a little bit of dirt work was already done by the time we all took a drive out there and looked at the site,” said Perkins. “[Thacker and Shafer] thought the site would be acceptable.”
The fire training facility will be located on the same property as the county highway department garage on E County Rd 800 N. While the county is responsible for preparing the site and maintaining the center, the structure—which costs around $675,000—will be manufactured off site and delivered for assembly in March. Additional props could be added in the future, such as auto extrication and electrical vehicle fire training.
“It will be very similar to the facility that was built in Wabash, Indiana. It’s made out of shipping cargo containers,” said Perkins. “It’ll be a three story structure where they’re stacked on top of each other.”
Community benefits
Lautner and Perkins said Chrisney’s fire training site will enhance benefits that Spencer County and surrounding areas already receive from volunteer fire departments.
“Volunteer firefighters save the taxpayers of Indiana $4.5 billion every year by not being paid. That’s something that we’re going to have to work towards because our numbers are dwindling, and our calls are going up. Our fires are going down, but our medical calls are going up,” said Lautner.
Lautner plans to use the new fire training facility as a recruiting tool, while Perkins is looking forward to teams across the region having easier access to training.
“Now not only us but surrounding areas will be able to come in as departments and do these exercises and trainings at this facility where they learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses. And they’re able to know what everybody’s capable of. They’ll know how to help train some of the newer people or bring some people that might be deficient in areas up to our standards to be able to get them confident in what they’re doing,” said Perkins.
“For somebody to get one of these facilities, they’ve got to let other departments come in and train,” added Jones. “If they’re going to receive state funds for a training site, it’s important to us that the training site is shared, that everybody has access to it.”
Perkins believes volunteer firefighters must train like career firefighters to provide optimal fire services.
“I always tell my guys and gals, ‘Yeah, we’re volunteers, but we want to be professional volunteers,’” he said. “And to be professional volunteers, we have to train just as much and just as hard as paid departments, and we have to take it as serious as paid departments. If you don’t have that kind of facility at your disposal, where you can do those types of trainings, then you’re not ever going to keep growing, honing your skills and becoming better.”
A funding first
Jones said the Hub-and-Spoke Training plan is the first solid funding mechanism that volunteer fire departments have had in Indiana.
“The state’s never done anything at this scale, which is absolutely necessary. Volunteer fire departments, for some, their yearly funding is $10,000, and that’s barely enough to put fuel in their firetrucks,” he said.
The initiative also included $10 million for new personal protective equipment issued to 66 volunteer fire departments across the state. While Chrisney didn’t get PPE, Rome, Elnora, Schnellville, New Harmony and Dale received full sets of turnout gear and Self Contained
Breathing Apparatus setup. Recipients were chosen according to needs and age of current equipment.
“You have SCBAs that are 15-20 years old, and they don’t meet today’s standards for SCBA and fire gear. If your budget’s only $10,000, $20,000, you can’t afford to buy turnout gear or SCBAs. It costs probably about $8,000 to $10,000 for a set of fire gear and SCBA,” said Jones.
If additional funding were to be made available, Lautner proposed allocating money to support a full-time department to cover gaps while volunteer firefighters are working 9 to 5 jobs.
“Even if it’s just two people during the day, 40 hours a week. Everybody’s really short during the day,” he said. “Thirty years ago, a lot of volunteer firefighters were farmers, and they could leave the field and grab a truck and go. We don’t have that luxury anymore.”