Fire training tower opening celebrated
The Siloam Springs Fire Department celebrated the opening of its newly constructed training tower Thursday with a ribbon cutting and series of demonstrations.
“This is 20-plus years in the making,” Fire Department Chief Jeremy Criner said.
The tower opened after about a year of construction and an estimated $800,000 in expenses, funds which City Administrator Phillip Patterson said are available because of the citizens of Siloam Springs.
“We are very thankful to the residents for voting in 2013 to split the one cent sales tax and allow 20 percent of that one cent to be used for fire department equipment,” Patterson said. “The original plan when fire station number one was built in 2001 was to have a training facility constructed on the site, and until recently the city hasn’t had the ability and the funding to make this training facility a reality.
“That vote showed that our residents want the fire department to have the best equipment and training that we can possibly afford in order to provide the highest quality of protection to
them and their property.”
The closest area training tower is in Lincoln, an estimated 30 minutes away, Patterson said.
Criner said in 2017, the department spent $112,256 in associated construction costs and $650,000 in 2018. An extra $50,000 had to be allocated for additional soil work, Criner said. Final estimates will be made available when a few more invoices for services are returned to the department, Criner said.
Criner said the planning process began in early 2017 with budget allocations. That December, a committee was formed and began researching towers. Research led to the construction of a third alarm, four-story model tower crafted by Werner-Herbison-Padgett Training Towers of Overland Park, Kan. The tower allows firefighters to repel from up to four stories, maneuver confined spaces and access the structure via a ladder from any story, not just ground level. Two burn rooms also allow firefighters to work, and learn from, live fires.
“This allows future firefighters to get realistic training,” WHP Field Service Technician Josh Weast said.
That realistic training, WHP Field Service Technician T.J. Lybarger said, will give firefighters a way to more effectively prepare for in-the-field fires. Something that will better benefit them when compared to something like a classroom setting, Lybarger said.
Director Reid Carroll said the tower was the epitome of what Siloam Springs is and who the people are.
“We’re going to train our first responders, bring safety to the community and increase our quality of life,” Carroll said.
Since the training will be available to other area departments, the benefits will impact surrounding communities, Carroll said. That aspect is also indicative of a thread that runs through Siloam Springs.
“We want to share it,” Carroll said.
The training tower is located at 1450 Cheri Whitlock Drive, behind fire station one.