03/28/2024
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Firefighter training and adequate training facilities were the topic of discussion at the Elizabethtown Rotary Club on Wednesday.

Rotarian Jim Crayton presented a program regarding the construction of a new fire training facility at the White Lake Prison Camp. He opened his presentation with some statistics regarding volunteer firefighters.

Crayton said there are 233,000 firefighters who are in the fire service who have inadequate training and/or inadequate equipment for fire fighting. He said NFPA 14 is a rule that mandated that fire departments can longer burn a house or other structure for training purposes.

Crayton said that currently the closest fire training facility is in Robeson County.

He recounted that in 2010 a training committee to study the problem. Crayton said that land located in the vicinity of Bladen Lakes School was obtained for the purpose of erecting a training facility. He added that shortly afterwards, the White Lake Prison facility became available and the county obtained it.

Crayton said the mission now is to convert the former prison facility into a classroom and training facility.  He said when the county obtained the facility all of the fixtures had been removed including the HVAC units.

Crayton said that the Bladen County Firefighters Association has a plan for a burning cell and a training tower.  He explained the group that with the burn cell, you can take wooden pallets and light them, and use the smoke and heat generated to simulate various rescue and training exercises including various methods for extinguishing a fire. Crayton said that obstacles can also be placed in the burn cell to simulate potential situations a firefighter might encounter when attempting to rescue a trapped victim.

Crayton said the fire tower also has a sloped angel with a piece of wood that firefighters can use to train how to properly cut and vent a roof in a fire.

He said that currently the association has obtained four 40-foot containers to construct a fire tower and they have a set of metal stairs for the fire tower. Crayton said the association is also receiving bids on refurbishing the classrooms.

He said they are still in need of financial contributions from businesses and corporations as well as in need of donations of building materials.

So why is a training tower and burn cell important?

Crayton explained that as part of the Insurance Services Organization (ISO) ratings fire departments earn scores based on such things as training, equipment, water supply, hydrants, communications (911 Center), fire prevention and fire department analysis. The possible ISO fire ratings range from a 10 which is no service to a as low as a 1, said Crayton.

He said having a training facility could add as much as three points to a fire department’s score card. Those three points for the facility could potentially make a difference between the department receiving an ISO rating of a 7 or a 6, said Crayton. The ISO rating a fire department has can make a difference in the insurance premiums paid by homeowners in that particular fire district.

“The last time Clarkton went through an ISO inspection, we got a 6 (rating). That (a training facility) would have made a difference to get us a 5 (rating),” said Jimmy Mize, of the Clarkton Fire Department.

When asked how often a fire department goes through the ISO inspection process, Emergency Services Director Bradley Kinlaw said that if a department has a lower rating, the state guidelines say they should go through the ISO inspection process every five years.

He added that the Bladenboro Fire Department just completed their ISO inspection on Tuesday. Prior to that, the department’s last inspection was about 20 years ago.

“It was the oldest in the state,” said Kinlaw.

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