At our annual awards recognition dinner on February 23rd, we honored Board of Directors President Lee Broadbent with a special plaque for his dedication to this project. The plaque reads:

"Build it and they will come"

Heartfelt thanks for your vision, passion and tenacity in leading us to our long-sought-after goal of Fire Training Center for firefighters of Columbia River Fire & Rescue.

During the past few months, construction efforts have slowed due to weather. As we approach spring, we will begin to see more activity at the construction site. The facade of the Fast Trainer building is coming together. The building has four storefronts, one with a second story and so far, is the only building erect.

In less than two weeks, we again see some significant changes to the landscape of the training center grounds.

The FAST Trainer building is showing significant progress. Siding installation began in late December. The structure will represent storefronts to be used in a variety of training applications. In the foreground, preparation was being done for what will eventually be a storage facility for props and equipment that cannot be stored outside.

Members of Columbia River Fire and Rescue continue to meet each week with representatives from WRG Fire Training Simulation Systems Inc. to discuss the project and progress.

Bill Gee of WRG shows Lee Broadbent and Lt. Dave Coombs the continued development of the facility.

The Lee Broadbent Training Center received a very generous donation from Boise Paper on November 2, 2006. A retired storage tank was moved to the training site which will be utilized as a confined space technical rescue simulation prop.
The 29,000 tank was positioned upright and stands 46 feet tall. Confined space rescue is a common scenario for the Specialized Multi-Agency Rescue Team (S.M.A.R.T.) which is made up of personnel from Columbia River Fire And Rescue, Boise Paper and the City of St. Helens. The team consists of 24 members who train every 6 weeks for 8 hours. The partnership between public and private employees makes it one of only a few similar type of rescue teams across the nation. S.M.A.R.T Coordinator, Captain Randy Peterson of Columbia River Fire and Rescue, said "The confined space technical rescue training facility will be one of the best in the state, if not the region."

October has been a busy month at the training center site and the structures are beginning to take recognizable shape. Some of the accomplishments this month include the foundation being poured for both structures. The FAST building structure is erect and the DePriest prop has been sited and flatwork has been poured. We also received delivery of some of the portable props and a donation of precast pipe for confined space training. Finally, we began choosing paint colors for the buildings and enlisted the help of our Community Liaison Specialist, Hyla Ridenour to make some of the selections.

Construction on the training center is rapidly progressing! The transformation of the site can be seen on a daily basis.
Division Chief Brian Burright inspects the structural beams already set in place.

On Friday of each week, members of Columbia River Fire and Rescue meet with the engineer/contractor, WRG Fire Training Simulation Systems, Inc., to review the facility design and progress on the project.

More photographs from the groundbreaking ceremony.

Welcome to our Lee Broadbent Training Center blog. We will update this site as construction progresses. The live-fire training facility is a long-time dream of Columbia River Fire and Rescue's Board of Directors President, Lee Broadbent, who is a retired Division Chief from the District.
Groundbreaking for the center took place on September 8, 2006 at our training grounds on McNulty Way in St. Helens, OR. Construction has begun and completion of the project is expected in the fall of 2007. WRG Fire Training Simulation Systems, Inc is the contractor for the facility. The training center will allow emergency responders to simulate realistic scenarios while learning in a safe and controllable environment.