A new fire training facility that will include an engineered two-story house of concrete with the ability to be lit on fire without sustaining damage is being planned by the Wintergreen Fire Department. The facility will serve all of the firefighters serving Nelson County.
It’s a bad news, good news situation, according to Wintergreen Fire and Rescue Chief Curtis Sheets.
The bad news is that hiring qualified people trained and ready to work as firefighters has become extremely difficult.
The plans for the concrete two-story training “burn building” shows how steps, windows, and doors for the students to train on will be installed. This building is designed to be lit on fire without sustaining damage. Each room will have a thermal liner allowing temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees and then rapid cooling, over and over again, says Chief Sheets.
The good news, explains Sheets, is “last fall, a number of things unexpectedly came together allowing us to construct a fire training facility.”
Chief Sheets said he is not in a position to make a formal announcement about the property. The site his department wants to use is north of Nellysford adjoining Route 151 with access to other roads. “The plot’s topography is such that the training center should be difficult to see from the highway,” he said.
The facility will be dedicated to training those who fight fires in Nelson County. While Chief Sheets had at one time looked at his department getting into the business of training firefighters for other localities, this is not that. he stressed. “This is not a business, it’s for local use,” he said, defining local use as "any department likely to respond to a major fire at Wintergreen.”
This is a major undertaking to address a staffing issue, but Sheets insists that it’s now appropriate and necessary.
“Historically we have hired only seasoned firefighters and care providers. When that simply isn’t possible, what do you do? We have doubled down on training, and on providing initial training for folks who are just breaking into the business,” Sheets explained.
Staff development is already working well for building and maintaining the area’s rescue staff. “Tuckahoe Clubhouse makes it possible for us to teach entire emergency medical technician courses in full compliance with Virginia regulations and we do a very good job with it. We don’t have that option for fire training right now,” he said.
“Not too long ago Wintergreen Fire and Rescue told people wanting to apply for jobs ‘we will put you on our waiting list.’ That really did happen. Now, as local governments throw tax dollars at their public safety employees, Wintergreen is finding it very difficult to keep up.”
There are fire training facilities in Lynchburg, Buckingham, and elsewhere in Virginia that offer complete practical training, but those locations are not practical for training staff here, says Sheets. Training isn’t just for new staff. Continuing education is required for existing staff as well.
“The lion’s share of the costs for this project is being covered by one very generous neighbor.”
“Currently, any staff completing live-fire training are not available for pending Wintergreen emergencies because they’re over an hour away,” Sheets notes.
Sheets is making a point with the Wintergreen community that this new fixed asset project is separate from his department's annual operating budget and its capital campaigns. “We are 100 percent dedicated to using only ‘new revenue streams’ for this facility. Our reserve accounts for apparatus replacement can’t be affected by this ‘next level’ endeavor,” he said.
When the training center is complete, the price tag will be very close to two million dollars. The facility should last many decades and will prove to be beneficial for all fire departments in Nelson County, Sheets said.
“Keep in mind that no major fire at Wintergreen is extinguished exclusively with Wintergreen personnel. For all “working fires” in Nelson County, the seven individual fire departments conjoin for a team approach. The lion’s share of the costs for this project is being covered by one very generous neighbor,” Sheets notes.
The project will likely be constructed in two phases. The first phase is the burn building itself. The second phase is a classroom facility adjacent to the burn building. “We have enough funds committed to cover the first phase and we hope to have that completed by year-end,” Sheets said.
“When everything is completed, we should be able to work with Nelson County Public Schools to identify young adults interested in our profession and then provide them with all required training to enter our workforce months after they graduate.,” he noted. “This is a collaboration that has literally taken over a decade to fully develop.”