Fighting fire

The city needs a new firefighter training center

The Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire has announced plans to provide additional training to firefighters in the wake of a New Year’s Day 2016 incident in which several firefighters were injured trying to get out of a burning building. While the additional training is good — a publicsafety organization always should be looking to assess and improve its performance — what the bureau also needs is a new training center.

The need for a new training facility was publicly identified at least as far back as 2008, when a consultant completed a review of bureau operations for the city’s state-appointed financial overseers. Among many other findings, the report identified weaknesses in firefighter training programs and described the Washington Boulevard training center, built in the 1950s, as “very outdated.”

“Although the facility will be able to meet the needs of the organization for a few more years, planning for a new facility should begin as soon as possible,” the report said. “As it exists today, the fire training facility lacks sufficient classroom space and there are limited props for live training drills.” The consultant suggested the city consider developing a single training center for police, fire and EMS services or at least merge fire and EMS training.

Ralph Sicuro, president of the firefighters union, said there has been some improvement in training props since 2008. Also, he said he doubted that the training to be offered in the wake of the Wilkinsburg blaze — on subjects such as “reading smoke” and escaping from burning buildings — was one of the improvements recommended in the 2008 report. Some of the advanced training to be offered because of the Wilkinsburg incident, he said, wasn’t even available nine years ago.

However, the training center is still cramped, something more noticeable than usual because of stepped-up recruitment during Mayor Bill Peduto’s tenure. Earlier this month, Mr. Peduto announced that the bureau’s staffing had reached 663, the highest since 2004. Mr. Sicuro said portable classroom space is in use at the training center.

There are other limitations at the center, too. Mr. Sicuro said it is not possible to do “live burn” drills there, meaning firefighters must travel to a county site in the North Hills. It would make more sense to provide the training in the city, where firefighters can leave the drill and respond to emergencies if needed.

As Pittsburgh grows and changes, the fire bureau’s responsibilities evolve, too. With a spate of riverfront development and ever-robust crowds at events such as the EQT Pittsburgh Three Rivers Regatta, for example, the city is pursuing the purchase of a fireboat. The fireboat and a new training center both make perfect sense.

Mr. Sicuro said Mr. Peduto and city council members have talked about the need for a training center, and he said possible locations have been discussed. It’s time for the city to move on this. Pittsburgh’s modern fire service deserves a modern training facility.