Grant money gets Madisonville Fire Dept. new training facility

MADISONVILLE, KY (WFIE) - Putting their skills to the test: Madisonville firefighters now have a new training facility.

The department was awarded nearly $100,000 in grant money to build the facility and support from the city helped make up the difference.

This new training space is made up of three red metal shipping containers. Two of the areas are on the first floor, and another on the second, which even allows for training space on the roof.

Awarded $98,500 in grant money from the Kentucky State Fire Commission, the Madisonville Fire department is proud of their new training facility. It was built late last week and sits behind station No. 4 along Hanson Road.

The design, which has a burn room, and features a forceable entry door, rappel station up on top, a roof ventilation prop, and confined space tube, costs $119,000.

And because of the city’s dollars, the department didn’t have to cut back on the designed props and use money already in the departments budget to make up the difference, giving fire fighters a variety of real life scenarios.

“A lot of times, a fire fighter doesn’t get any experience actually breaching a door, breaching a wall, crawling through a facility and trying to find a fire,” Madisonville Fire Department Chief Ray Wyatt explains. “The experience they get is on the job experience. In other words, an actual fire. This will give us a control environment that we can let them practice their skill.”

The first training is expected some time in December.

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