New Grande Prairie training centre a 'game changer' for area firefighters

County of Grande Prairie Fire Chief Trevor Grant at the opening of a new training centre at the Dunes Fire Station on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (Jesse Boily)

A $1.8 million state-of-the-art training facility has been opened at the County of Grande Prairie Regional Fire Service’s Dunes Fire Station.

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The facility will act as a regional training centre for firefighters with the City of Grande Prairie, MD of Greenview and beyond.

"This facility reduces our firefighters’ exposure to potential harmful carcinogens due to the clean burning propane and simulated smoke," said County Fire Chief Trevor Grant.

The new facility uses propane and theatrical smoke, which has the added benefit of relighting fires quickly and giving firefighters the opportunity to do more training in less time.

For the past 13 years, the region has used a facility for training where they burned wood and hay for live fire training, said Grant. He added that after putting the fire out it could be difficult to restart.

"This facility, it does it all for us with the theatrical smoke and the propane. It creates the fire environment, it burns a lot cleaner, it's a lot safer for firefighters, and we can actually reset and do more runs, because we don't have to get that fire started again; it's essentially a flick of a switch," he said.

The three-storey facility is made of sea cans and has burn chambers on the first and second floor. The third floor has a balcony with a BBQ to simulate an apartment fire.

"Then, on the roof, we actually have engineered anchor points so we can do high angle rescue," said Grant.

The burn chambers simulate rooms in a house like a kitchen which includes a fire rollover simulator and a living room with a couch.

"This is the game changer," said Greenview Regional Fire Chief Wayne Brown.

"We really like the safety aspect of this leading-edge technology that's been put into this facility, and because we are full volunteer firefighters, this is going to make our training go much more quickly. And, obviously it's safer, and so when we do go to incidents, we're going to have that training to perform very well in a fire situation."

City of Grande Prairie Fire Chief Mark VanWerkhoven said this facility saves funds by not having to send firefighters away for this type of training.

"We would historically do this training (in) other areas, and there's certainly a significant expense," he said.

"We want our first responders staying within our communities more of the time, and so this is not only going to enhance our level of service, but it also is an opportunity for us to do so in an efficient way and probably save some money in doing it."

County of Grande Prairie Reeve Bob Marshall believes mutual aid and shared training are essential to the region's success.

"Our partnership with neighbouring municipalities enhances our ability to respond quickly and effectively to emergencies," said Marshall.

"The impact of this facility will benefit the entire region, providing our firefighters with advanced hands-on training to improve their response capabilities and ensure the safety of both our communities and our first responders."

City of Grande Prairie deputy mayor Gladys Blackmore echoed Marshall.

"Fire, like crime and homelessness and other natural disasters, (does) not respect municipal boundaries, and so it's fitting that we join together to develop training centres," she said.

The County of Grande Prairie contributed $1.29 million to the new facility with about $625,000 coming from the City of Grande Prairie and MD of Greenview.