Clearwater County will consider nearly $1.2 million in fire training tower upgrades during 10-year capital budget talks.
Clearwater County Regional Fire Services Fire Chief John Liadis said the county's fire training tower "is critical for providing high-quality training to regional firefighters to enhance skills, improve safety and meet the ever-changing demands of modern firefighting techniques and standards."
Liadis told the county's strategic planning committee that fire department leaders have looked closely at what would be most useful for future fire training and tweaked earlier plans.
A field operations classroom tops the list of projects.
Liadis said in firefighting circles, it is known as a "dirty classroom."
It is designed so that firefighters can come out of the tower during training sessions and review firefighting techniques on demonstration boards and video without having to take their protective gear off.
The classroom will reduce "down time" and "allow for a hands-on approach to correcting and improving the construction time …" he said.
A viewing area would be created to allow instructors and observers to watch firefighters going through their paces on the training tower and hose drying and gear storage areas would be built.
Liadis said the available classroom is not big enough at times to accommodate all of the firefighters, which can include firefighters from Sundre, Lacombe, Sylvan Lake and other communities.
"We don't have classrooms big enough to accommodate class size," he said, adding dividing up classes is difficult.
It is proposed that $75,000 be put aside next year to do the engineered drawings. Construction estimated at $550,000 would take place in 2026.
The next phase of upgrades in 2027 is budgeted at $250,000 for a pumphouse system for training use but also to fill trucks faster and provide an additional water supply for fighting fires in the Leslieville area.
"This would help us from the training side of things with a pressurized source of water," he said.
In 2028, $50,000 is budgeted to begin work on a $250,000 facility to simulate flashover fires.
"(Flashover fires) can be very dangerous if you don't have proper training," he said, adding most of CCRFS officers have flashover recognition and are live fire training specialists.
Coun. Genny Melhaaf also proposed successful motions that administration be directed to explore community partnerships to help fund the fire training centre and a fee schedule be created to rent out the fire training tower to others.
