Burn Building Will Save Lives, Money

“This is an investment in lives,” said Emergency Management Director Chuck Haynes on the opening of the new Fire Training Burn Building in Liberty Saturday.

Firefighters from across the county came out to the dedication of the new Pickens County training facility, located in Liberty.

“What a great day for the citizens and for all the emergency services in the county,” said Vineyards Chief Phil Black, president of the Pickens County Fire Chiefs Association.

The building will allow firefighters to train under a variety of scenarios, he said.

“We want them to experience a realistic fire, but we don't want them to get hurt,” Black said.

The building can simulate tight conditions, such as moving through a manhole or cave-in in order to get a victim, or cutting through roofs with chainsaws in order to provide access or ventilation.

The new Burn Building will result in costs savings for area department, the county and for taxpayers.

“As fire departments, in order to maintain our ISO ratings, we have to have live burns every year, and up until now, we've had to go to other counties or all the way to Columbia,” Black said. “Also, our new recruits, when they did their live burns, they had to go all the way to Columbia. I can't tell you what a delight it is not to have to do that any longer. It's one of the finest burn buildings we've seen in the state.”

Easley Fire Chief Butch Womack agreed.

“There's going to be so much money saved here,” he said. “People are not going to realize it. You as volunteers are going to realize, you don't have to drive to Columbia so often. But the money that we pay out, just in Easley, for motel rooms, travel, those folks being away from home - it's going to make a world of difference to us, just to have you locally.”

The burn building will allow fire departments to do “burns, ladder training, ventilation, pump testing, drafting, rope training, confined space, search and rescue, just to name a few,” he said. Crosswell Fire Chief Scott Smith said getting the facility in place involved “years of planning, begging and hard work.”

“The Pickens County Fire Chiefs Association was trying to get this implemented before I even got into the fire service, and that's been back before 1990,” Smith said. “But we kept our nose to the grindstone and we didn't give up on it.”

One ally the project had was County Administrator Chappell Hurst.

“He was steadfast,” Smith said. “He worked with County Council to get this facility in place.”

Hurst promised that before he left Pickens County, the facility would be up and running.

“He didn't say that we would work on it,” Womack said. “He said that we would have it.”

Central Fire Chief Ed Reynolds thanked Hurst for seeing his promise through.

“I don't want to run him off, but he can go now – we got our building,” he said, drawing laughs from the crowd.”

County Councilman Randy Crenshaw said volunteer firefighters give enough on the job already.

“You volunteer your time to work these stations and fight the fires and it's not fair for you to have to go away from home for some many days at a time to take your training,” he said.

Crenshaw said the financial crunch had brought the project to a halt.

“But it's here now,” he said. “We're hope it's something you get a lot of use out of. We know you will.”

He said he was glad to see the next generation of firefighters.

“It makes me feel good to look out here and all these young people that want to get involved in this,” Crenshaw said.

Sheriff Rick Clark said the facility would also serve law enforcement. He referenced the incident earlier in the week where Georgia firefighters were taken hostage by a gunman.

“What this said to me is we've got to train together, not only on extreme cases like that, but on everyday things,” Clark said. “As our society changes, your job becomes more dangerous, not only in the elements you face, but in the citizens we face and what we come upon on fire and police scenes. Having a centralized training center, where we're going to combine the training we do, is going to be a great asset to Pickens County and to the Sheriff's Office. The benefits that it brings back to the county more than pay the investment that Pickens County has put into it.”

Haynes said the facility will also be a boon to rescue squads.

County officials cut no corners regarding the new facility.

“It could have been done cheaper, it could have been done quicker, it could have been done easier from an engineering standpoint, but it wasn't – it was done right,” Haynes said. “It's something to be proud of.”

Smith agreed. He said the association had looked at prefab facilities, but picked a stronger footprint for the facility.

“We all know firefighters can break a steel anvil if given half a chance,” Smith said. “We wanted something that was durable and would last.”

Womack said there was no way to mention all the people who had a hand in the burn building, but he urged firefighters to thank them whenever possible.

He urged firefighters to encourage their chiefs to make time for them to train at the new burn building.

“You need to be up here training,” Womack said.

After the ceremony, which included a rope-burning in lieu of a ribbon-cutting, a class of new recruits from fire departments across Pickens County began training at the new facility.

Haynes congratulated them on being the first class to use the new facility.

“We've all been there, so we know what you're going through,” Haynes told the recruits. “The skills learned here are going to save lives.”