Florence firefighters ready to put new facility through paces

Credit: MORNING NEWS/JOHN D. RUSSELL

Florence firefighter Kelly Lee kneels down, Friday, January 7, 2011, during a large space fire training exercise inside the recently acquired 18,000 foot training facility.

By: John D. Russell | SCNOW
Published: January 09, 2011

FLORENCE --

The Florence Fire Department has a new tool to aid in helping keep Florence safe.

The tool isn’t an axe or fire engine, but rather an 18,000 square-foot training center off of Mechanicsville Road that will be used to keep firefighters’ skills sharp in case of an emergency. It will help members of surrounding fire departments, as well.

This is the first time in the fire department’s history it has a permanent training site

For many years the department looked for a suitable training site and, recently, one acquired by the city became available.

That combined with the capital improvement plan approved last year by city council made it possible to move forward.

“This gives us the opportunity to have our own facility and we don’t have to utilize private buildings to do training,” Florence Fire Chief Randy Osterman said.

In the past, property owners would let the fire department use vacant buildings or buildings that were slated to be torn down for training.

Osterman said he has seen many training facilities, including ones that cost more than a million dollars.

“Quite frankly, we don’t have a million dollars, but after a small investment into this place , we’re going to have a million-dollar facility, so this is very exciting for us,” he said.

The new facility will be completed in the next couple of years, but even then it will be adapted to offer many different kinds of training.

“The fire service is constantly evolving and changing. There is so much room that we’re only limited by our imagination,” Florence Fire Department Deputy Chief Shannon Tanner said. “The sky is the limit.”

The Florence Fire Department doesn’t plan to keep the facility all to itself.

For many years, other departments have offered their facilities for Florence firefighters to use for training. Now, Florence wants to return the favor.

“Firefighting is based on helping each other out and we have some very good fire departments around us,” Tanner said. “There are 12 departments in this county and they’ve helped us; now we can help them, too.”

Although the facility is a work in progress, firefighters already are using it.

“This is huge and I’m really excited about it,” Tanner said. “At the end of the day, the more you train the better you’re going to perform. We’re going to do better for our citizens, give them the level of service they ask for and need as well as what they deserve.”