Posts Tagged public safety training campus to be built in Burlington IL

New fire training campus

Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

Hundreds of area residents turned out for the open house Wednesday afternoon at the Elgin Community College Center for Emergency Services in Burlington.

ECC President David Sam welcomed visitors to the open house and thanked the community for its support in passing the referendum question in 2009 that provided funding for the facility.

The 120-acre site includes two ponds which furnish water for fire trucks and three main building structures: the academic building, where classes are held in public safety and communications, emergency medical services, criminal justice and fire science; the apparatus building, which features two bays for training and houses a fleet of emergency vehicles including two engines, an ambulance and a ladder truck; and a three-story burn tower for training of firefighters in search and rescue, and train police in incident management.

Streamwood Fire Chief Chris Clark, who also works as an adjunct faculty member at the facility, said the training tower allows them to perform search and rescue training in a safe environment and was built with the flexibility to be used for many different types of training.

Inside the academic building, students will receive training in public safety communications for 911 operators; practice CPR and other lifesaving techniques; learn to operate a firetruck or police car on a simulated driving machine; and plan the tactical management of multiple departments in the incident command room, which includes a model city.

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New fire training campus planned (update)

Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:

Construction of Elgin Community College’s new Public Safety Training Center in Burlington is wrapping up and the first students will take classes there in spring, officials said.

Work began in the fall of 2014 where the nearly $20 million center on about 120 acres along Plank Road will provide classes and training for police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians.

“We anticipate having our first class start there mid-spring semester (end of March/April),” said Ileo Lott, ECC dean of sustainability, business and career technologies.

ECC now offers programs in fire science and safety, emergency medical services, hazardous materials and apparatus, fire science management, public safety communications, criminal justice and emergency medical technician-paramedic.

“When we are fully operational, the emergency operator (911) program, emergency medical technician basic program and fire science courses will be there,” Lott said.

Nearly 80 percent of police officers, firefighters and paramedics are credentialed at community colleges, according to the American Association of Community Colleges.

ECC’s new center includes an 18,300-square-foot academic building with space for future simulation training equipment, an 11,900-square-foot apparatus building including classrooms and two bays for training on fire and police equipment, and a three-story burn tower, which will simulate residential and commercial fires.

Also coming: an emergency operations simulated lab, a near-functioning command center to train students to respond to emergencies, and a community room available to fire and police departments for public meetings. The facility also will have a digital forensics lab that can be used by police to conduct investigations.

Also on the property are a 139,400-square-foot driving pad with a skid pad, a drafting pond providing water for firefighter training, and a dive pond for submerged vehicle search and rescue training.

The college is also looking to buy an ambulance for paramedic training.

“If we are able to teach students in the environment that they will be working in, it increases the quality (of learning),” said Carl DeCarlo, interim director of fire science and safety programs. “The new campus will allow us to store and maintain an ambulance and use it in a realistic setting.”

The South Elgin and Countryside Fire Protection District has offered ECC an ambulance it plans to decommission, which would cost ECC between $5,000 and $9,000, Lott said.

A new ambulance could cost more than “six figures,” he said. But “we haven’t finalized a deal with them at this point,” Lott said.

The center has generated much interest among local police and fire departments who want to use it to train their personnel. Ultimately, officials aim to train new and existing police and fire service professionals there.

“We are still working on the accreditation to become a regional training center,” Lott said. For that, the center must be certified by the state fire marshal’s office. Still, “we’re very excited to be able to be a participant in the community in this way,” Lott said.

thanks Dan

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New fire training campus planned

The Daily Herald has an article talking about a new proposed training facility for the fire service:

Elgin Community College has the go-ahead from Burlington trustees to build a satellite campus within the village limits — an $18 million project that will have an early focus on training first responders.

The Public Safety and Sustainability Center would relocate programs for police and firefighters to the 118-acre site on Plank Road, according to Sharon Konny, vice president of business and finance at ECC. Truck driving, energy management and sustainability programs would be run there as well.

“More than 80 percent of first responders in the U.S. are trained at community colleges,” he said. “This project will ensure that our local first responders learn and train at a first-rate facility.”

But not everyone is happy with plans for the new campus. Burlington residents have been concerned with a proposed outdoor firing range that Konny said is not part of the first phase of the project.

A “village” of shell buildings will be constructed to use for search and rescue training and in simulations for firefighters. The roads through the village can be used for truck driving students who are constrained on the main campus in Elgin, Konny said. The college is also considering geothermal wells and will get at least some of its power from a wind turbine.

The entier article is HERE.

thanks Chris

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