Monroe Community College
Rochester, New York

PUBLIC SAFETY TRAINING FACILITY

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The Public Safety Training Facility (PSTF) is a two-phase project to construct a full faceted training facility for public safety providers. The PSTF is located at 1190 Scottsville Road, which is also the current site of the City of Rochester's Fire and Police Academy. Phase 1 of the facility opened in the Fall of 1999 and is currently hosting fire training programs to Municipal and Industrial Fire Fighters along with being a Regional training site for Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF). The total budgeted funds for Phase 1 were approximately $13 million.

Currently, the County contracts with Monroe Community College for all public safety training to be conducted at its Public Safety Training Center. A partnership agreement with the County of Monroe and the City of Rochester was executed in March of 1998 to continue operation of this training. Under the partnership agreement, the County will lease the property at Scottsville Road from the City of Rochester for a period of 99 years with an option to purchase the property. The Public Safety Training Center moved to this facility in July of 2001, where the college continues to provide public safety training and manages the facility.

Phase 2 consists of a new 49,000 gross square foot addition to the existing Rochester Fire and Police Academy. The new addition houses the Monroe County Fire Bureau, Rochester Fire Department Training Division, Monroe County Office of Emergency Preparedness, and numerous classrooms and office space for Monroe Community College. Construction of Phase 2 began in the Fall of 1999 and was completed in September of 2001. The entire budget for both phases was approximately $26 million.

Fire Props

MULTIPURPOSE BUILDING - This 12,000 square foot building houses the control tower (to control the computer props and oversee the training activities), two vehicle bays, two training classrooms, breakroom, men's and women's locker room, and three small offices.

THREE-STORY BURN BUILDING - This is a concrete prop building consisting of six fireplaces which are fueled by propane to simulate a bedroom fire, living room, kitchen, storage area fire, laboratory fire, ceiling plenum, flashovers, and allow for cold smoke generation to simulate real fire conditions.

INDUSTRIAL FIRE TRAINING PROPS - Several propane-operated props are located on the site. These props consist of a 500-gallon fuel tank fire simulator, transformer fire simulator, electrical fire simulator, pipe flange simulator, and a vehicle simulator which will have three separate fire units to simulate an engine fire, interior fire, and a brake fire.

HIGH-ANGLE RESCUE TOWER - Renovation of the existing prop building allows fire fighters the ability to once again use this prop for ladder training and rescue.

FUEL SPILL FIRE TRAINER - This is a mockup of a Boeing 737 to meet FAA training design standards. The mock aircraft is surrounded with propane fuel valves to simulate an actual aircraft fire. The structure is placed upon a 125 foot diameter working surface with a fuel spill burn area surrounding the entire prop. The valves can be fully ignited to surround the entire prop or divided to allow for a partial grid area burn.

SPECIALIZED AIRCRAFT FIRE TRAINER - This is a partial aircraft mockup to allow for training for a cabin fire, galley fire, cockpit fire, wheel/brake fire, and underwing fire.

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS AND SCHEDULE

TWO TRAINING VEHICLES - These vehicles are on-site to be used for air rescue fire fighting training purposes.

Construction on Phase 1 was completed in October of 1999. During the months of August and September of 1999, numerous acceptance tests were conducted on all the fire training prompts with the various vendors. Systems were evaluated for their effectiveness and then reworked to accommodate the specific needs for the fire training programs. Fire training classes are currently underway in the ARFF programs and the municipal fire training programs.

In January of 2000, the foundation at Phase 2 was poured and steel bids went out to various vendors. The subcontractors, under direction of DiMarco Construction, cleared the site, prepared the infrastructure and developed site specifications. The County's technical design consultants, Clough Harbour & Associates, were responsible for the engineering, architectural, and construction management. Phase 2 was officially opened in January, 2002.

Phase 2 enables the Office of Emergency Preparedness and its Emergency Operations Center to move from its cramped quarters in the Social Service Building on Westfall Road into this new facility. This allows greater flexibility of space, in that the Center can be used for training during non emergencies and activated when necessary.

This site also houses the TEAM Command program for Monroe Community College. The Public Safety Incident Management and Command Post Operations classes will now be held at this centrally-located site. This allows for uniform delivery of these classes to all emergency service personnel.

Other features for this site are: a fire protection sprinkler laboratory, hazardous materials laboratory, training maze for firefighters utilizing Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA), and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) labs and classrooms for the Emergency Medical Technician and Paramedic programs. Several rooms enable Law Enforcement agencies to conduct enhanced in-service tactical training, along with numerous classrooms to accommodate the demands.

For more information, contact:

Jim Harrington
Program Coordinator
Fire Programs
585-279-4015 or
JHarrington@MonroeCC.edu

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