WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — The Warner Robins Fire Department is hoping a new training center will help them keep people in the community safer. Fire Chief Ross Moulton says they have been building this fire training center for about a year and a half.
"This is our new fire tower/live burn simulator," Moulton said.
It's located off of Foy Evans Drive in Warner Robins.
"We will be able to do live burns on three separate floors, so we have a first-floor burn room, a second-floor burn room, and a third-floor burn room," Moulton said.
He says their old tower was in need of an upgrade.
"This building as opposed to the other ones, this building encompasses everything in one structure," the chief said.
The tower has air vents, sprinklers, plus a smoke machine that's similar to stage smoke.
"We can have the guys attack through this door, this door will close, this is a burn room, this door will shut, or we can do the second door and make entry," Moulton said.
The six-story tower models an apartment, house, business and even a hotel building.
"We can place these walls in here at any configuration we would like too, so we can make this room four different rooms, we can make it one big room," Moulton said.
He says the tower is built of 17 cargo containers welded together and even has an attic and elevator shaft.
"That point up there is where we'll be accessing it with like tripods and ropes, we will lower ourselves down in here," Moulton said.
On the top floor, he says firefighters will learn how to use the ladder truck and their rope training.
"So anytime we put somebody close to the edge, we make them tie off," Moulton said.
He hopes this new tower prepares his men and women for the worst. So they can perform their best during a fire emergency.
The new training tower cost $714,000 according to Moulton, with SPLOST money paying the bill. In the future, a fire training center and storage will also be housed on the property.