WELD COUNTY — The firetruck pulled up to the building, smoke streaming out of the structure. Firefighters jumped off and rolled out hoses. A garage door rolled up, and flames shot out. The pair of firefighters working the hose aggressively moved forward, spraying water on the fire.
Welcome to the North Metro Fire Rescue District Training Center, where firefighters say they train harder, safer and greener.
“It’s awesome,” Capt. Glenn Smith said of the center. “It will definitely help raise our level of training.”
The $19 million, 14-acre complex, planned for years and brought to life by the North Metro Fire Rescue District, will allow firefighters to train for a wide array of situations. Rescue training scenarios can include water, ice and confined spaces, such as tunnels and trench collapses.
A three-story “tower” features a floor that vibrates, simulating the feel of a floor in a real fire that is buckling and about to collapse.
Firefighters on Wednesday demonstrated a “flash over,” where flames race across the ceiling.
North Metro’s operations chief, Kevin Sweeney, recalled when his department had one-person stations, scant training and was mostly volunteers.
“This facility is such a quantum leap,” Sweeney said. “We can train, and regulate the training, for all kinds of responses.”
Practice fires at the new environmentally friendly facility are ignited from a clean propane source, producing minimal smoke. Water will flow back to a retention pond so it can be reused. Firefighters hope to recapture about 60 percent of the water they use to train, saving hundreds of thousands of gallons for the district over the course of a year.
North Metro Fire, which owns and operates the facility at 1006 Weld County Road 11, plans to open it up to firefighters from across Colorado, if not the nation.
A confined-space rescue course is made up of more than 200 feet of buried pipe with several manholes along the course for quick emergency extraction.
Landscaping around the practice-burn buildings includes a parking lot with parked vehicles so trainees can get the feel for racing up to a burning building complete with obstacles.
The facility gives firefighters the opportunity to push the envelope while training, but at the same time allows them to do it more safely than at older, less-well-equipped centers.
A slogan above the complex’s education facility says it all: “Training . . . because lives depend on it.”
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
