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Hamilton Twp. officials are moving closer to building a fire training facility.

At the Wednesday, April 16 trustee meeting, the fire department made a presentation showing training tools they'd like to build in the township. Earlier this month a group of firefighters went to a similar training facility in Auburn, Ind.

"This was quite a bit bigger than what we're going to do, but it will give you an idea of what we want to do," Fire Chief Goebel Williams said. "We got some really good tips from these guys and were flooded with information."

The Indiana facility had a class one burning facility built with large shipping containers resembling a two-story building to stimulate going into a basement or upstairs room for search and rescue. It also had a 3,000-gallon pit, a car fire stimulator, an SCBA course, a flash fire stimulator and other training tools. It was built two years ago as a regional training district using homeland security money and cost approximately $80,000.

"They redesigned the containers so they could be cut into rooms and for no charge they said we could use their plans to build ours," Fire Lt. Jim Conley said. "Plus, most of the supplies were donated by area businesses and most of the labor was done by the firefighters to save money."

Already having $30,000 from Loeb grants, the fire department wants to start planning the first phase of picking a location and building a burn tower. Possible locations could be near Station 77 or in Mounts Park off Stubbs Mill Road. They also hope to get $15,000 to $20,000 in grant money over the next two years.

"We know we don't have the funding to do it all at one time but before we go further we have to know a definite site to accumulate the cost and construction fees," Conley said.

Building a Class A training facility would be the first in Warren County and would allow for more frequent training sessions, help boost public protection ratings and possibly the start of a citizens fire academy. It would also be open to surrounding fire and police departments.

"When we first talked about this last year we thought if we went though with something like this that it would be something all area departments could participate in," Trustee Becky Ehling said. "My idea of a training facility is not 'us' guys but 'all' guys — South Lebanon, Morrow, Turlecreek, Goshen, Lebanon, etc."

Officials need to meet with prospective groups to go over details before a location can be decided and the phase one can begin. The county-wide fire chiefs will meet on Thursday, May 1; the township park board will meet on Monday, May 5; and the board of trustees will meet on Wednesday, May 7.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4545 or dlockwood@coxohio.com

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