In June of 2013, Fire Marshal Harmon and Captain Jerry Hinson presented a request to Lowe's Home Improvement of Forest City for building materials to construct several much needed training props. After the initial meeting with Lowe's General Manager, Chris Angel, the requested materials were graciously donated to Forest City Fire Rescue and prop construction began. The next phase of this training venture was the needed space to house the props.
Public Works Director, Stewart Briscoe, provided an area in a building owned by the Town and used for storage by Public Works. After working for three days to rearrange equipment, store materials, and conduct general cleaning, the 2,100 sq. ft. area became available to store the newly constructed props.
Since that time we have added many props to this facility such as the Denver Drill, Pittsburgh Drill, Window Bailout Prop, Entanglement Box, Floor Collapse Prop, Ventilation Roof, Disoriented Firefighter Prop, Residential Search (with furniture), Nance Drill, Ceiling Collapse Prop, and second story windows. This facility has allowed us to provide realistic training to our staff on topics like Mayday, Self-Survival, VEIS, RIT, Rescue, and Air Management. Having a training facility within our city limits allows our firefighters shifts to perform valuable company training, air consumption tests, and physical agility tests. The Beaver Street Facility also hosts numerous firefighter classes for students from a four-county area.
This facility would not have been possible without the vision and support of Captain Jerry Hinson, Chief Mark McCurry, Director Stewart Briscoe, Lowe's General Managers Chris Angel and Tom Burow, and all of the hard work of the career staff of Forest City Fire Rescue. Someone once said, "Our job is 99 percent preparation and 1 percent performance." At Forest City Fire Rescue, we strive to provide excellent training, and the Beaver Street Facility is a great example of a community coming together to improve service and performance through training.