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Scottsdale Fire Deputy Chief Danny Ables stands inside the antiquated three-story burn building at the department’s Thomas Hontz Training Facility. (David Minton/Progress Staff Photographer) 

Scottsdale Fire Deputy Chief Danny Ables stands inside the antiquated three-story burn building at the department’s Thomas Hontz Training Facility. (David Minton/Progress Staff Photographer) 

The Scottsdale Fire Department training facility consists mainly of two portable trailers and a three-story burn tower that can only actually catch on fire on the first floor.

After that, firefighters who want to practice fighting fires on the second or third floor must use smoke machines attached to extension cords that somebody jimmy-rigged to run upstairs.

A make-shift classroom seats maybe 12 people with rebar poking through the floor, one computer for training purposes and a black-and-white copier that doesn’t work for large projects.

If an instructor wants to print copies of a PowerPoint presentation, that has to be emailed to the department’s administrative offices to be printed. Someone must then pick up the documents and bring them back to the training facility.

There is not even a gym for physical fitness training or an equipment port to store a truck or equipment.

As it stands, any trucks brought out for training sit in the sun and equipment is stored in large, shipping container like boxes.

The crumbling bathroom consists of one toilet on the men’s side and only a few showers.

The lack of showers is more important than it sounds.

It’s been proven over the last few years that particles from fires that land on firemen’s equipment and are potentially exposed to their skin can cause cancer, so proper hygiene after a live-fire training is crucial.

That’s all about to change though.

The city’s proposed budget for this coming year includes $23.3 million for a brand new, state of the art facility, which will include:

• A four- to five- story Class A burn training tower, utilizing converted storage containers with ventilation props and forcible entry props.

• A one- to three-story basic skills building in a strip mall concept utilizing converted storage containers, along with ventilation props and forcible entry props.

• An outside skills evolution area that would include hazardous materials props, technical rescue props, and aircraft rescue and firefighting props.

• An 8,000- to 10,000-square foot building to include a conference room to accommodate 100-plus people, break out rooms, 25-person locker rooms, bathrooms, physical fitness room, administrative offices, full kitchen and two apparatus storage bays.

It will also include things like “cold tubs” for training and an infrared sauna designed to eliminate the dangers of working with the particles created by fires.

One aspect that may not sound very glamorous – but Assistant Fire Chief in Charge of Training Danny Ables is excited about – is the extra space for administrative staff and trainers.

“We use one RTO (recruit training officer) per five recruits, so if you’re up to 30 recruits, that’s six RTOs,” Ables said.

Plus, the chief in charge of training will have an office at the new training facility rather than administrative headquarters.

The joint fire-police training facility is getting a $10 million upgrade as well that will include a stand-alone 5,000 square foot, two story training structure and a 2,000 square foot live fire shoot house and renovated ballistic range to accommodate 15 shooting lanes.

The new training facility will accommodate the size of the police and fire departments and maintain pace with technological and legal changes within the law enforcement community.

The current facility is over 20 years old, undersized, does not meet the national training curriculum standards and limits the type of training police officers and personnel can receive creating a safety issue.

However, Scottsdale Police spokesman Sgt. Kevin Quon said, “The facility is not bad and is used daily for training and other events.”

Also slated for this year is a $2.9 million project to replace the training track that police use.

The new fire training facility will allow the department to hold academies to train up to 32 new recruits at a time.

Scottsdale Fire currently farms out its new recruits to regional academies held by Mesa, Chandler, Phoenix or Glendale.

“Right now, we’ve got 10 in Glendale and we’ve got another 6 in August going to Phoenix,” Ables said.

That means rather than having to wait until another city capable of putting on an academy is ready to run one, Scottsdale can run it’s own academy whenever it needs.

It also means it will be able to take on firefighters from other cities for academy training.

“This is designed to be a regional academy,” Ables said. 

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