WASHINGTON, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Indiana governor Eric Holcomb recently announced the expansion of the state-sponsored firefighter training locations around the state.
It’s designed to eliminate training deserts. One of the five new locations will be at the Washington Township Fire Department in Daviess County.
These new facilities allow these incoming firefighters to simulate almost every situation that they will encounter. Washington Township Fire Chief David Gray said that alone makes it worth it.
“It is going to be a tremendous asset for Daviess County and surrounding counties to be able to use something like this because it is a certified burn chamber,” Gray said.
For years, people in both Greene and Daviess counties have had to go out of their way to get the training they need to become a firefighter. Gray said the closer the training is, the more likely people will volunteer as firefighters.
“You are asking a person to volunteer their time to firefighting, but then you are also asking them to take 100 hours of training that will tie up some weekends that will pull them away from their family,” Gray said. “If you can cut down that distance that they have to travel, I think that helps in recruiting.”
Linton Fire Chief Eric Carpenter said these facilities are exactly what the area needs.
“We now have a state-of-the-art facility that we have needed for several years,” Carpenter said. “It is not only ours, but all of the neighboring departments around are also able to use it.”
Carpenter said they couldn’t have asked for anything better for their department.
“We are a small department so we can’t afford to send guys to a lot of training, so with this facility being right here in our backyard, it makes it a lot easier for us to train our own guys right here on the job,” he said.
The Linton Fire Department plans to hold a grand opening for their facility on July 15 and the facility in Washington plans to be open and fully operational by summer of 2025.
