Plymouth Fire Department Requests Use of County Property for Training Facility

Training-TowerThe Plymouth Fire Department is looking for a piece of property to construct a live training facility. Fire Chief Rod Miller approached the Marshall County Commissioners Monday morning to request the use of some land at the Marshall County Jail site.

“The purpose of this is to obtain property for this training facility,” explained Miller. “The use of this property would be a multi-agency use for the county departments including police and fire. It would definitely be an opportunity for every department in the county to take advantage of something like this. The closest one that we have now is in Warsaw.”

The Plymouth Fire Department would be the managing agency for this facility. He asked the commissioners if the facility could be placed on the southeast of the jail as a hydrant for required water service is nearby.

“I would be asking for my city utilities superintendent to tap into that line and to run a line back to the property in question here. That would be one of the NPA requirements that we have to run a facility like this as a water supply. That would be at the city’s cost.”

Once the formalities are complete, construction would take 10 to 12 weeks and training could immediately begin.

Miller said the facility would only assist the local fire departments in terms of training and proximity to complete required classes.

“This would meet every requirement of training and skills that we would have to do to satisfy the State of Indiana’s Firefighter I and II classification for certification. This is a lengthy class that the fire departments put on on a regular basis throughout Marshall County and throughout District 2.”

The facility would be able to provide the training needed to simulate a live fire event.

“There are three things that we can burn in there. We can burn a natural vegetation, which would be straw and hay, that would create a smoke environment that we can live with and it would not be a danger to us being in there with it. The maximum heat temperature that we would be dealing with is between 500 and 900 degrees. That would be generated by no more than two wooden pallets from Unaka Forest Products in Knoxville, TN.”

Commissioner Jack Roose commented that the north side of the jail may be a better location for the training building as the future expansion plans for the jail, if needed, would be on the southeast side of the jail – right where the Plymouth Fire Department was wanting to build this facility.

In the end, the commissioners approved a motion to allow the fire department to work with the city and county attorneys to see how to move forward. The township trustees are planning to fund the building.