The Town of Saugeen Shores is unveiling the fire department’s new training centre.
Fire Chief Ed Melanson was joined by Mayor Luke Charbonneau, members of council, Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson, and Solicitor General Michael Kerzner earlier today in Port Elgin for the official opening of the facility.
“It is made to attempt to mimic what the firefighters would experience if they were in a real structure fire, we use real wood and straw to do it, we have a room that is very specific to burning it so that our structure stays sound. We are able to duplicate second floor or basement fires, it has a stand pipe, so we can even duplicate multi-storey, multi-residential housing. It gives a controlled atmosphere where they can train at very low risk to themselves,” says Melanson. “There is such a need for this to make sure that they are safe and competent in what they do, training is a big part of that.”
Saugeen Shores Fire Department Training Facility (Photo by Nathan Shubert)
Charbonneau says this project has been in the works for a couple of years after Melanson initially approached council on how they can better support the local fire department.
“They had been doing this at Bruce Power for many years and we have had a great partnership with Bruce Power and we appreciate it, but it is not quite as convenient going there as it is having a facility in our own community. Our firefighters came up with the idea, they came to council and council put the $400,000 or so into the budget to do it,” says Charbonneau. “It is going to make our firefighters safer and it is going to make them more able to respond to emergencies in our community.”
The mayor praised Melanson for being a strong advocating voice for the local fire department.
“Chief Melanson is very progressive and comes forward with great ideas all the time about ways to improve our training and our safety and our service to the community. The chief is the leader on this and a leader across the province so we are very fortunate to have him and we will be taking his advice,” says Charbonneau.
