By David Fleet
Editor
Groveland Twp.- On June 10, the township board of trustees voted 5-0 to OK $33,409 for a development of a new GTFD Training Center. The money will come from the township infrastructure fund.
The training center will be constructed of a total of five shipping containers each approximately 40 feet-by-8 feet and about 8-feet high. Last fall the fire department purchased the first of the containers which has since been used for monthly firefighter training.

After renovations which includes a smoke machine the container, which is located behind Station II is used by firefighters who can gain experience with simulated obstacles such as collapsing walls, electrical wire entanglement and exiting windows.
Groveland Township Fire Department responds to about 18-20 fires each year with a staff of about 40 firefighters who train twice a month.
GTFD Lt. Decker, a firefighter for 20 years and with emergency medical services for 25 years, who spearheaded the training center outlined the project at the township meeting.
“This provides the community with firefighters confidently prepared to deal with dangerous, life-threatening situations that may occur,” said Decker.
Now with the additional funding, the training center will be expanded with four additional containers stacked three high and two wide connected with four steel stairwells. To get the ISO credit the training tower must be 40 feet high. Firefighters will be able to experience actual encounters with heat and smoke within a space 16 feet wide imitating a traditional home size. The area will be set up to simulate bedrooms or bathrooms in a burning residential structure to practice bending a water charged hand line around corners, in addition to advancing a line up and down stairs. There will also be a simulated ceiling drop and falling through the floor of a burning building.
The training center will be located on township property near Grange Hall Road and I-75.
“I’d rather have the firefighters reach a panic mode here at the training center, then I can calm them down,” said Decker. “You remove your sight when the room is full of smoke, that alone heightens your anxiety, then you put on a face mask and you can’t breath as well as you normally can that adds yet another level. The aspects I’m looking for (in training) is the heat and the black smoke.”
Across the country firefighters are dying in the donated live burn houses used for training, he added.
“Not to mention the chemicals released in the air for the donated house that is burning,” he said.
In 1987 a practice fire at an abandoned farmhouse in Milford, Mich. burst out of control, killing three volunteer firefighters and injuring four others. According to news reports, the firefighters were trapped on the second floor by a flash over, which occurs when hot gases and smoke ignite and sweep a wide area with flames.
“The neighbors don’t like the live burns either,” he said. “So, you’re seeing fewer live burns. The risk is real for our firefighters.”
The training center will be much safer for firefighters, Decker added.
“When you think about our risk-reward it’s just not there (for live burn),” he said. “In this fashion it’s all about control. We are going to be lighting two bales of hay, it’s going to give us smoke and heat. All the doors will be unlocked before the burn and if you get someone who is new (to firefighting) and is panicking they are never going to be more than five feet from an exist. If it gets out of control we can open the doors and it ventilates in 30 seconds.”
The project is expected to be up and going by this fall