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Firefighter Training Facility in the Works in Stevens Point

Pixabay.com

A partnership between the City of Stevens Point and Mid-State Technical College for a fire training facility is in the works after the city's police and fire commission signed off on a memo of understanding that calls for Mid-State to invest $25,000 per year over 10 years in the project.

“This is a major step to the training facilities for firefighters in Central Wisconsin,” said Fire Chief Robert Finn. “This will not only help the Stevens Point Fire Department and the Mid-State Technical College, it helps fire departments in the area.”

Finn says the facility has the potential to put the city "on the map" regionally when it comes to training, while also bringing some economic impact:

“This will bring people from all over the state to the city of Stevens Point, using our hotels, using our restaurants and just seeing our great city,” he said.

Fire department training officer Trevor Howard said the facility will help firefighters build skills in several areas.

“We’ll have an area to teach vehicle extrication, to remove patients from vehicles faster to give them a better chance of survival,” Howard said. “We’ll have a high angle rope rescue tower to train on saving someone suspended from an elevated position. We’ll have a confined space training prop to train on saving a victim from these types of environments safely and effectively.”

Plans currently call for the facility to be built on city-owned land along Whiting Avenue- and be available for regional training when not in use by the college or city.

The facility will be built in phases over 10 years and has the potential to encompass more than three acres.

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