Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One has opened a new $17.2 million live-fire training center, giving local firefighters access to realistic, in-district training after years of traveling to other facilities across Washington state.
The new campus, funded through part of an $80 million capital bond approved by voters in August 2022, includes a five-story, 17,051-square-foot training tower and a two-story support building with classrooms, offices, a decontamination area, and other operational amenities.
Fire Chief Dennis Doan said the facility will have a lasting impact on emergency response in the community.
“There will be a day, many years from now, when a firefighter who was trained in this building makes the right decision at the right moment on the worst day of someone’s life,” Doan said during the June 24 grand opening ceremony. “When that day comes, the people they help may not know that this facility had anything to do with it. But we will know.”
The voter-approved bond is also funding the replacement of the agency’s Kimball Drive station and improvements to the Fox Island, Crescent Valley, Swede Hill, and Artondale stations, according to Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One. The bond costs the owner of a $500,000 home an estimated $9.90 per month for 20 years, based on 24 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value.
Training Division Chief Scott Corrigan said the new facility will reduce travel time and keep crews closer to the community they serve. Previously, the department often relied on outside training sites in places such as North Bend and central Pierce County.
“Now, because we’re here, all of our people will be here in case an emergency happens,” Corrigan said. “And we can cease training and go respond in the community for a major alarm.”
The training tower is designed to replicate a wide range of fire and rescue scenarios. Lt. Max Haas, a training lieutenant, said each floor includes specialized rooms that can be accessed in different ways to mimic various building layouts, including apartment-style, hospital, and school environments.
Several rooms can accommodate live-fire props, allowing crews to train with controlled flames and smoke. The building is plumbed with propane and uses clean-burning fuel and artificial smoke to create realistic training conditions.
“We can fill a room, as long as the prop is in there, with smoke and flames with artificial smoke and clean-burning propane,” Haas said. “That way it helps us practice things like fire attack or any of our other disciplines in a more realistic environment.”
Live-fire props include a garage fire setup, a sofa, a kitchen stove, a hallway fire scenario, and a mobile car fire prop that can be moved around the site. Haas said computer-controlled safety systems regulate each live-fire prop and can shut off propane if conditions become too hot. Emergency stop buttons are also installed throughout the building.
“If they reach a threshold that’s too high, too hot, it’ll shut off the propane, and we’re able to make this environment tenable in 60 seconds or less,” Haas said.
The facility was also built to adapt to changing community needs. One room includes a modular prop system with panels that can be reconfigured to mirror challenging home layouts or other building conditions.
“As much as we could, we tried to remove permanent concrete walls that would divide the space,” Haas said. “This really makes sure that we’re able to change the space to what our community needs in live time.”
The tower also supports technical rescue training. Crews can practice stabilizing collapsed floor areas and rescuing people from rubble, as might be required after a natural disaster or mudslide. Vertically aligned openings from the fifth floor to the basement allow firefighters to train for rope rescues involving cliffs, embankments, or other vertical hazards.
Doorways throughout the building can be fitted with forcible entry props to simulate locked doors that crews may need to breach during structure fires.
Before the new campus opened, Haas said the department’s in-house training options were limited.
“We used to build things out of free pallets that we found on the side of the road,” Haas said. “We had a really bootstrapped effort kind of thing. We retrofitted a single shipping container to make some kind of layout that we could practice with.”
The adjacent 11,866-square-foot support building includes four offices, a meeting room, classrooms, and a “dirty classroom” where firefighters can debrief or receive instruction while still wearing gear. A decontamination area gives crews space to safely remove and dry equipment, while locker rooms, showers, bunker gear storage, and a 5,152-square-foot apparatus bay support daily training operations.
Corrigan said the facility is primarily intended to train Gig Harbor firefighters, but the agency may invite outside departments to participate in classes or exercises when additional personnel are needed.
“There will be times where it makes sense to expand the geographical ring of the offer for the class to draw more resources here,” Corrigan said.
