First VA fire training facility opens at Butler campus
VA Butler Healthcare has become a trailblazer among Veterans Affairs locations after giving up its fire department a building to blaze.
In July, the system announced the construction of a live fire training facility on the VA Butler Healthcare Medical Center campus at the site of the former domiciliary. It was constructed by Kirila Fire, an Ohio-based company that designs, constructs and repairs fire training facilities internationally.
Assistant chief David Guiste of VA Butler Fire and Emergency Services said, while more than 20 VA offices have their own fire departments, VA Butler Healthcare is the first to open a dedicated facility.
He said the fire department first approached the VA with the idea over two years ago with the goal of offering a better training experience for both itself and community partners, such as the township and city’s departments.
Previously, the fire department trained out of a retired greenhouse, which did not structurally allow for water or ladders to be used, Guiste added.
“We didn’t have a place on our site or in our jurisdiction where we could go train on those tasks,” he said. “We have BC3 (Butler County Community College) down the road, they have a similar, but also different, type of building. It’s more brick-and-mortar and it’s very far from here. We have to stay local.”
Since the announcement of the facility, Guiste said other VA locations across the country have been looking into getting their own facilities.
“The Office of Emergency Management within the VA, they’re inquiring about this as well to see for other facilities potentially,” he said. “So it’s like all of the write-up and the work we did for this, we’re going to share with other facilities around the country if they want to try to obtain something similar.”
Guiste said the facility offers a plethora of training opportunities and scenarios, primarily geared toward keeping fundamental firefighting skills sharpened.
“There’s not a single task that firefighters do that is really hard, but they’re all perishable,” he said. “If we don’t do them, we forget them. Things like forcing doors, being comfortable with that stuff is fundamental.”
The VA’s training facility is comprised of three modified shipping containers, but some facilities are made from as many as 15. The doors on the two first-floor containers are designed with forcible entry practice in mind, with one door swinging inward and one swinging outward.
“I had a team of about three or four guys, with feedback from our whole department, that worked on this committee to figure out our budget. The sky’s the limit on these things and this is a rather small system,” Guiste said.
Sections of the interior are insulated to better withstand any live fire used. Each floor has a dedicated sprinkler system that allows cooling or extinguishing on command.
On top of the second-floor container is a rappel tower, featuring a bailout window, that firefighters practice escaping buildings through.
“We used to have this window frame that I built that was huge, weighed a lot and it was cumbersome to move around. We’d have to go find a railing, and we would bolt it on. So we knew we wanted something that was wood, like something we’d find in our house,” Guiste explained.
Some other facility features included a roof prop with an adjustable angle for laying and climbing ladders and an upside-down T-shape pipe for confined space rescue practice.
“We have a big mission here for confined space,” Guiste said. “We have a lot of water pits. A lot of people take these for granted but these are all over our campus, Butler Township and everywhere. They’re places utility workers go in all the time where they can have medical emergencies or get trapped.”
After presenting the idea upward, members of the fire department began to decide what they would want included in the facility.
“We are a small department, about 14 people, and trying to get everybody’s ideas onto paper and making them work with an engineer, it was a real process,” Guiste said.
During this time, Brandon Sampson, VA Butler Healthcare’s emergency management specialist, said he was able to acquire Emergency Management Performance Improvement funds. The funds are provided through the Veterans Health Administration to enhance emergency management program goals.
When the project finally went to bid, the VA selected Kirila Fire, which was also the fire department’s personal pick.
Paula McCarl, public affairs officer for VA Butler Healthcare, said the bid received from the company totaled $295,000, but the local office paid nothing out of pocket.
Construction of the facility was completed on Aug. 12, and no live burn training has taken place as of Wednesday, Guiste said. The fire department is hoping to use the facility fully for its monthly joint training with Butler Township and city fire departments in September.
