Attachment 6

Olympia Fire Department

Fire & EMS Master Plan
FIRE TRAINING CENTER

FIRE TRAINING CENTER ----------------------- 2

OVERVIEW ------------------------------- 2

TRAINING VERSUS EXPERIENCE ------------ 2

RISK MANAGEMENT --------------------------- 2

PROBLEMS WITH EXISTING

LIVE FIRE TRAINING -------------------------- 3

A NEW TRAINING CENTER-------------------- 5

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FIRE TRAINING CENTER

Overview
Ongoing fire training is essential to the Olympia Fire Department’s successful
execution of its mission. It is also mandated by Washington State law. An excerpt
from the Master Plan states, “those (Firefighters) who will perform interior
structural firefighting must have quarterly training...and shall be commensurate
with their duties and responsibilities.”

Also, as stated in the Master Plan, there is an increased need for realistic training
due to the “Paradox of Firefighter Training.” This says that, as the fire department
does a better job of preventing fires, the less proficient firefighters become and
the more basic skills must be practiced.

Training versus Experience

Structure fires have become a High Risk/Low Frequency (HR/LF) event for our
Firefighters.
While the overall number of fire incidents has increased, the percentage of
structure fires has decreased. Our Members occasionally become involved in
these low frequency events where if not handled properly, there are major
consequences. Take away frequency and you have taken away experience.
Take away experience and all you have left to rely on is training. Everyone wins
with highly trained, highly qualified professionals responding to and handling fire
incidents.

There is a need to train in a Live-Fire environment.

Risk Management

Identifiable risks are manageable risks.

Fire training is identifying things that can go wrong, and developing practiced
control measures to prevent them from going wrong. We need to train more than
ever in a building (training tower) that simulates live fires within the various
structure types found within Olympia.
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• Single family homes

• Multi-family homes
• Commercial structures

These various types of structures can be replicated in a training tower building to

simulate the types of risks that we encounter in Olympia.
The greatest vulnerability in Olympia’s current training facility is that it does not
allow for live fire training.
Our current training tower is unable to facilitate the live fire training atmosphere
and is undersized for the needs of live fire training.

Problems with Existing Live Fire Training

Olympia’s live fire training opportunities are limited. The Department conducts
live fire training in donated structures, through the Academy at Bates Technical
College, and, on a limited basis, at the Kent Training Center.
The problems with this approach include:
1. Infrequent Structural Live Fire Training — Under the current system,
structural live fire training opportunities are infrequent. The need for more
frequent live fire training was a recurring theme in the Employee Opinion
Survey and in the consultants’ site visits. Some firefighters go more than
a year without live fire training. One firefighter reported that he had not
participated in live fire training since his academy three years prior to the
interview.
Live fire training is infrequent for the following reasons:
a. Cost. The costs associated with sending companies to another
community’s training facility are significant. Overtime must be called in to
backfill while on-duty companies are training outside the community or
overtime must be paid to off-duty personnel sent to participate in live fire
training.
Costs associated with utilizing donated structures slated to be razed are
also significant. Personnel must be assigned to inspect the structure for
suitability, tests must be conducted to ensure that hazardous materials,
such as asbestos are not present and an agreement between the City and
the property owner must be negotiated prior to the burn.
b) Infrequent Acquisition of Donated Structures. While the Department
utilizes structures slated to be razed, these donations are relatively rare.
This problem is compounded by the need to find structures that are
suitable — some structures may not be safe for interior operations or may
not have adequate separation from other buildings.
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c) Inability to Ensure Adequate Staffing. For live fire training to be most

effective, existing companies should train together. This results in the
need for more personnel to be available to backfill the system. If those
personnel are not readily available for an extended period of time,
companies cannot be taken out of service.

2. Safety Concerns. There are numerous safety concerns associated with

any live fire training. However, there are additional safety concerns that
must be addressed when utilizing donated structures. These are
enumerated in NFPA Standard 1403, Live Fire Training Evolutions, 2002
Edition.

3. Liability Concerns. The use of donated structures for live fire training
presents the City with additional exposure to civil action. The increased
exposure comes from several sources, including:
a) Increased likelihood of civilian injuries.
b) Burning the wrong building — it has happened in Washington
c) Accidentally burning adjacent structures.

4. Environmental Concerns. Live fire training releases into the environment,

water, light and noise pollution. Air and water pollution are of particular
concern with utilizing donated structures. Donated structures may contain
materials that are hazardous to the environment. These materials may be
released into the atmosphere, ground water and surface water. Noise and
light pollution have more of an impact when donated structures are used
in populated residential areas.

5. Response Time Concerns. When the Department takes a company out of

service for live fire training, the other companies must respond to calls
normally handled by the company involved in training, unless overtime is
called in. This has the effect of increasing response times.

In addition to the concerns above, live structural fire training is specifically

addressed by Washington State law, which essentially parallels NFPA Standard
1403.
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A New Training Center

Olympia Fire Department’s existing training center cannot meet the State of
Washington’s training requirements for live fire, nor does it meet the
Department’s training needs. Ideally Olympia should develop a new, more
efficient training center.

The current training facility consists of a four-story training tower, a flat roof vent
prop, an angled roof vent prop, and a search room made from steel containers.
The facility was built in the 1 on a 40,000 square foot lot. The facility is also used
by the Parks Department for storage.

Simulated fire and rescue drills can be conducted at the existing facility.
However, structural live fire training cannot be conducted. In addition, the facility
can be used for driver and apparatus placement training. While the Department
utilizes the facility regularly and in creative ways, the existing facility is
inadequate. Simply put, the training needs of the Department cannot be met with
the existing facility.

The Department should construct a new fire training facility that is consistent with
NFPA Guide 1402, Building Fire Service Training Centers, 2002 Edition. The
facility should, at a minimum, incorporate a training tower, a burn building and
classroom(s) and have adequate props to simulate various drills and aspects of
rescue. Ideally, space to conduct fire apparatus driver training programs. It
should be located as close to the City’s core as possible in order to minimize
training time and associated costs. Finally, the new facility should be attentive to
neighborhood concerns and address issues of air, noise and light pollution.

A new training center should be constructed in an area that is removed from

residential occupancies and readily accessible to personnel and apparatus. The
new facility should utilize technology which minimizes atmospheric releases of
smoke and other toxic substances. The new facility should have adequate
classroom, office and storage space. Props to simulate different emergency
scenarios, e.g., a building for live fire training, which utilizes clean burning fuels,
a tower to simulate multiple story firefighting and rescue scenarios, a hazardous
materials pit to simulate spills and hydrocarbon fires, and enough paved area for
a driving course. The Department believes approximately five acres of space will
be necessary for the new facility. The size of the site is not only important in
terms of providing sufficient work and training areas, but also to provide a buffer
between the facility and neighboring businesses or residences.
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Specific items for the proposed facility that should be considered include:
• Burn Building. The burn building should provide commercial and residential
style environments allowing firefighters to conduct fire ground operations, fire
attack, ventilation, search and rescue, forcible entry, laddering, overhaul,
salvage, and utility control. The burn building should utilize clean burning
materials, such as gas fire with smoke simulation.
• Tower. The tower would be a four or five-story structure complete with
vestibule, simulated smoke system and fixed fire protection systems. The tower
should permit the Department to perform high rise operations, use of aerial
ladders, rappelling, and fire ground operations in low rise occupancies. If
rappelling is practiced, the tower will have a removable net system on the
rappelling side to prevent injury or death during rescue training.
• Gas Props. Clean burning natural gas or propane can be used to simulate
various fire attack scenarios. These props can be used to create water and gas
mixtures to simulate flammable liquid fires without creating the air pollution
associated with props that burn flammable liquids. Gas props can also be used to
simulate automobile fires and propane storage tank fires.
• Specialized Service Training Props. If the Department increases its special
services in the future, the new facility should allow for the addition of special
training props for trench rescue, confined space rescue, and hazardous materials
control.
• Extrication Pads. Extrication pads are concrete pads large enough to hold a
vehicle and extrication equipment. The pad controls and contains any vehicle
fluids that may leak from a vehicle during training and have an under lining that
acts as a barrier to prevent ground water contamination.
• Pump Pit. A pump pit allows the Department to conserve treated water while
conducting drafting, and pump testing. The pump pit essentially recycles water
and helps prevent contamination from surrounding surface water runoff.
• Classroom(s). The new facility should include classroom space for various
training and pre-training briefing activities. Support areas associated with the
classrooms should include restroom and locker facilities and audiovisual
equipment.
Driving Course. The new facility should include a diving area constructed out of
concrete capable of supporting fire apparatus under driving conditions. The pad
can double as a parking area for the facility.