Fire Department to pursue grant to finish building

By GINA KINSLOW
Glasgow Daily Times

GLASGOW June 10, 2009 12:59 pm

— Glasgow City Council members gave the city’s fire chief permission Monday night to pursue grant funding for the completion of a training facility at Beaver Trail Park.
The fire department is applying for a $67,386 grant through the Kentucky State Fire Commission.
“This will let us complete the project,” said fire chief Bobby Bunnell.
The grant money, if awarded, will be used to install a thermal liner in the training facility’s burn room.
“We can use the facility for other training evolutions right now without the liner inside the burn room, but we just can’t have a live fire inside the building,” he said. “The burn room will actually let us simulate some type of fire. Most of our fires are residential fires. So, we can actually have a fire, produce the heat and smoke the firefighters would experience when making an entry into the structure.”
Firefighters can also gain further training in the use of thermal imaging cameras, which are often used to detect fire victims in burning structures.
The training facility at Beaver Trail Park is being built in three phases. The first phase involved the construction of a training room, while the second phase was the construction of the drill tower and the burn room.
“We’re hoping this will complete it,” said Mayor Darrell Pickett. “Any time we can add any type of training to our agenda, it’s just a plus for us.”
Pickett also pointed out that the facility can be utilized by area fire departments aside from Glasgow. Such fire departments that might take advantage of the training facility would be Barren, Hart, Metcalfe and Edmonson County Volunteer Fire departments.
“We’ve had a lot of other training that’s already been there that’s been open to our county fire departments,” Bunnell said. “We’ve had several to take advantage of that.”
Prior to construction of the training facility, firefighters trained using actual burning buildings.
“We used abandoned structures,” he said, which could be dangerous.
If no such structure was available, firefighters traveled to Warren County for training exercises at the drill tower there.
Use of the drill tower and the burn room will be a much safer training venue for the firefighters, Bunnell said.
The grant requires no match from the city.
Councilman Brad Groce pointed out that if the city is awarded the grant, the city could receive a discount on its property insurance.
“If we get it done, it should help us as far as our (fire) protection class and our training,” he said. “Hopefully, this will get the project finished.”