Fire training site needs work

CITY HALL — Glendale firefighters’ training building may soon get a face-lift, making the hollowed-out concrete structure safer to use for live fires.

Glendale Fire Department officials are seeking the City Council’s approval today to transfer $150,000 from a renovation project for Station 29 to reconstructing the fire burn building, where firefighters and recruits fight flames in a controlled environment.

The fund transfer is not expected to affect rebuilding efforts at Fire Station 29, according to the report.

“It’s a critical structure for us,” Battalion Chief Greg Godfrey said of the training building. “It’s the only place where we can test recruits.”

Repeated burns inside the building have caused substantial damage, making it unusable for fire and forcing recruits to practice at the Burbank Fire Department training facility, he said.

The building has been out of service for more than a year, Battalion Chief Greg Fish said. The interior concrete has begun to crumble from the heat, exposing the building’s reinforcing bars, officials said.

The 1960s-era burn building hasn’t been repaired in several years, so the overhaul is needed, Fish said. Reconstruction could take three to five months, Godfrey said.

The building is one of few burn buildings allowed to operate in the region as a result of strict air quality regulations, according to the report.

Setting live fires in controlled conditions allows fire officials to determine how well recruits react in those settings before they permanently hire them, Godfrey said. Glendale firefighters have also occasionally practiced night burns inside the building.

As a result of advancing fire prevention technology, firefighters are responding to fewer fires, Fish said. Being able to practice firefighting allows firefighters to brush up on their skills, officials said.