Fort Rescue
Planning for the Cedar Hammock (FL) Fire Department training facility began in the late 1980s when Chief Richard Fulwider teamed up with Glen Bliss, former chief of a neighboring fire district, to discuss the dreams for and goals of such a facility and to develop a partial site plan. Fund-raising tor the project met with limited success. The big break came when a property owner in the district agreed to donate land for a fire station, along with two acres of land for a training center. The fire station was constructed shortly thereafter. The training facility project had to wait until funds became available.
When I was promoted to training director in 1991,1 was given the responsibility of spearheading the effort to build the facility. Blueprints already had been drawn up, and Manatee County had approved the site plan. Plans called for a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) training area, a vehicle extrication/fire area, a fourstory’ concrete smoke tower, and a 2,500square-foot classroom. With S 3,000 in the account and the recent withdrawal of the neighboring district from the project, things looked pretty grim; but the responsibility and challenge were there, so I met with the best resources 1 knew—our employees—and we began building.
All construction was done with a master site plan of the facility in mind. An architect agreed to convert our pencil drawings into certified blueprints and specified the sizes of poles, beams, and joists thatshould be used to ensure structural integrity. The architect assisted us during the permit process. The county permit department had some reservations about our plans, since the facility was a “one-of-ifl kind” structure. The original permit for’ the rappelling wall, for example, classified’ the wall as a “retaining” wall. ^
Fort Rescue, a name derived from the winning entry in a facility-naming contest* held during the facility’s construction phase, is four stories high and features spiral and straight stairs and a confinedspace training simulator. All systems are connected for unlimited scenario situth tions. The site has perimeter floodlights, an LPG fire/leak area, an electrical equipment simulator, and two “reclaimed waiter” hydrants, installed by the county at no charge. *
It cost less than SI0,000—a portion which was donated by neighboring fire departments and emergency agencies—to develop and construct the training center. Almost all labor was donated by the business community or our personnel.
A fee schedule for outside agencies wishing to lease the training facility has been established; agencies that have contributed money toward the construction ?of the facility will be given “credit” for their donations.
RAPPELLING WALL
In October 19911 returned from a rope fescue class at the Florida State Fire College with an idea to build a wall for ‘rappelling training. The original rappelling Avail now constitutes the front of Fort Rescue. Although we did not have the ‘funds to complete construction, the chief authorized me to proceed with the idea. A local lumber company sold us lumber at cost for this, the first project at the training facility.
* One of our lieutenants mentioned that a neighbor had several wooden power poles lying on his property. 1 visited the neighbor, and he agreed to donate several poles to be used for the rappelling wall and volunteered to deliver and install them at no charge. Construction of the wall by the firefighters and officers of our department was begun in late 1992 and was completed in April 1993-
CONFINED-SPACE RESCUE SIMULATOR
In June 1992, after having completed a confined-space rescue class at the Fire College, I envisioned constructing a confined-space rescue simulator near the rappelling wall. Sections of 30-inch pipe were obtained from the county, and we began planning the simulator. The high ground water table at the site necessitated installing the pipes aboveground. A local concrete product company donated several concrete vaults and additional pipes. Instead of building two vaults connected by a straight 30-inch pipe, as originally planned, we changed the configuration to a U-shaped maze. A building supply store that recently opened in the district donated the lumber to build the two confined-space decks (one 12by 12-foot and one 12by 28-foot) above the confined-space vaults. The piping network includes four confined-space vaults with manholes and two with access/escape doors, 45 feet of 30-inch underground pipe, 30 feet of 48inch pipe, 15 feet of 20-inch pipe, and 10 feet of 24-inch vertical pipe. Like the rappelling wall, the confined-space simulator was built by our department members on a voluntary basis.
TOWER
One of our lieutenants saw a photo of a wooden tower on the cover of a magazine and suggested we convert the rappelling wall into a tower. The chief and fire commissioners enthusiastically approved the idea. The man who had installed the poles and the new building supply store again agreed to help at a minimal cost.
This area has a 16-foot-wide rappelling wall and three tower decks (two 16by 16-foot and one 16by 8-foot) and provides five rappelling scenarios: flat wall, no parapet; wall with windows, with parapet; open air rappel, with parapet; balcony rappel; and through-hatch rappel. A toplevel hatch opens tor rappelling to the second level.
As the two projects proceeded, one of our firefighters suggested that the rappelling and confined-space area be connected. This turned out to be an excellent idea. Construction on the tower and confined-space rescue simulator began in the Spring of 1993 and was completed in December of the same year, when we “flew” the spiral stairs in with a crane. This completed Fort Rescue.
LPG LIVE FIRE TRAINING AREA
The local power company provided a supply tank, piping, valving, and labor for the LPG live fire training area. The area provides the following training props:
- a fuel/LPG truck that can be ignited in the following areas: rear hose/meter/pump compartment, cab, saddle tank, and top
- vent/relief valve;
- a 1,500-gallon aboveground fuel tank with simulated flame impingement and vent fire and a 150-pound LPG “dummy” tank with simulated cluster valve and/or relief valve fire;
- a residential meter; and
- underground pipe.
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
The following training scenarios are also available.
- A four-pole mockup of most types of electrical equipment found on the street, provided by the local power company, will be “energized” for a live training evolution for power company personnel and “deenergized” for firefighter training evolutions.
- A system of underground plastic pipes, ranging in diameter from ⅝ inch to four inches, supplied with compressed air to simulate natural gas leaks, providing firefighters with opportunities to practice
- plastic pipe antistatic procedures, clamping, patching, and plugging.
- A donated 12by 48-foot mobile home soon will be converted to an SCBA survival maze. *
- A donated 2,500-square-foot modular building will be set up as a classroom.
Fort Rescue can be used for many kind^ of emergency training in addition to rappelling and confined-space rescue, including ladder practices, advancing hoselines, aerial ladder drills, high-rise operations? and elevated victim rescue. The training possibilities are limited only by the individual setting the scenario. A paramedic? class recently performed its final trauma scenarios at the facility. It almost seemed “too real” as a patient completely packj aged for advanced life support transport was brought out of a manhole.
Future plans for the facility include adding a 40-foot vertical shaft, a standpipe system, and a canopy roof, among other additions.
