Fire training facility looking for a hoem

With Kevin Hayes absent, the remaining selectmen John O'Brien and Gus Benavides last night split over a proposal by Fire Chief Jim Hayes to build a training facility behind the fire station, which O'Brien said would mar the appearance of the municipal campus.

Hayes told the board that since the Lily Pond Fire Training Facility on Route 11-C, which was operated by the Lakes Regional Mutual Fire Aid Association on land leased from the Laconia Airport Authority, shut down, opportunities for training in realistic settings have been severely limited. Firefighters can train at the New Hampshire Academy, but only half the department can be scheduled at once and then at a cost of $1,500 per day. Although training sessions are held in the fire station, Hayes said that without smoke and water they lacked the degree of reality required to test the practical skills necessary to control and overcome a structure fire.

Hayes proposed constructing a modular facility from "Connex" storage containers, bolted together and stacked three deep and two high, topped by one container to create a third level. The structure, he said, would measure 40-feet long by 24-feet wide by 18-feet high, with the third level reaching to 27-feet to simulate the average size of a single-family home. The interior space of the facility could be reconfigured and filled with props to more closely simulate the situations firefighters would encounter in actual emergencies. The facility could be placed at the rear of the fire station, Hayes explained by excavating and leveling the embankment between the station and the Town Hall parking lot.

Anticipating the most likely questions, Hayes began by telling the board that the Department of Public Works could prepare the site and estimated the cost of purchasing and assembling the containers at between $25,000 and $27,000, which the department proposed to raise through a fundraising campaign. Operating costs would be minimal since the facility would only require painting from time to time.

Hayes said that the facility would be obscured from Cherry Valley Road by the fire station and could be painted to blend with the station to soften the view from Town Hall. But, he conceded "we can't hide the whole thing completely."

Benavides was prepared to approve the project, but O'Brien said "I have a problem having it where it is proposed," adding that the site would often be filled with smoke and water. He asked Hayes what other locations might be suitable. Hayes said that he considered the landfill on Kimball Road, but there was some question as to whether the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services would permit a facility to be placed on filled land. He said that he had not approached the airport authority about returning to the old location.

O'Brien stressed that he supported the project, and had no reservations apart from the location.