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Home My WebLink AboutPOUDRE FIRE AUTHORITY SPECIAL REVIEW COUNTY REFERRAL - 44 91 - SUBMITTAL DOCUMENTS - ROUND 1 - FIRE AUTHORITY REQUIREMENTSPhone 303-221-6581 • lul Kemington mreet 1 Vf -- Fort Collins, CO 80524 August 16, 1991 Gerald White Zoning Administrator Larimer County Planning Dept. P.O. Box 1140 Fort Collins, CO 80522 RE: Poudre Fire Authority Training Facility Dear Jerry: The Poudre Fire Authority (PFA) has negotiated a 50 year lease with Colorado State University (CSU) on the Foothills Campus for the purpose of developing a training facility to serve our department. The cost of the lease is one dollar per year which CSU has waived for administrative purposes. The lease includes an option for an additional 30 years. Although the approximately 28 acre site is on CSU property, our intent is to follow the Larimer County approval process. Funding for the project is currently included in a long term capital improvement package being considered as part of the 1992 City of Fort Collins budget process. If the anticipated funding i-s-approved-,-our-pl-an i-s for -development -of the-si-te - to be accomplished in three phases. The first phase of the project calls for the site work to begin in 1992. This will include utilities, curb and gutters, street paving, drainage work, and the building of a retention pond. The retention pond will be used to capture runoff from water used during training exercises, ice rescue in the winter, water rescue, and for the testing of the pumps on our fire engines. In 1993 we would hope to construct a burn building which will simulate live fire conditions. In order to train our firefighters as to the amount of heat and smoke they would likely confront during an actual fire, we will be using a combination of live fire, a smoke machine and natural gas to create these conditions. PROTECTING LIVES & PROPERTY /r pg. 2, Poudre Fire Authority Training Facility The burn building will be a masonry structure designed to withstand repeated fires over a number of years. Strict national standards only allow Class A materials to be used for these fires. Class A materials are defined in the standard as "pine excelsior (wood shavings), wooden pallets, straw, hay and other ordinary combustibles". The straw and hay are to be untreated and free of pesticides and other harmful chemicals. The burning of a Class A material would not be used to produce the heat and smoke a firefighter might encounter but would be used for training in locating and extinguishing a fire. To generate the high temperatures firefighters must experience, the burn building will use natural gas to produce the heat. By using natural gas we are able to control the temperature and immediately eliminate the source of heat should one of our personnel become endangered. This eliminates the need to burn a large amount of Class A material to produce the same temperatures and enhances the safety of our personnel. Smoke will be generated by the use of a smoke machine originally designed for use in the entertainment industry. The smoke is non- toxic and non -irritating. It produces a thick smoke similar to that found in an actual fire but contains no particulate. I have included information on the machine and the fluid used to create the smoke. We would also use this building to train in the use of the self contained breathing apparatus worn by firefighters in�hazardous atmospheres, search and rescue training, and the strategy and tactics of fire fighting in single family residences. The planned third phase of the project is the construction in 1995 of am6.8 foot tr_a _n i_ng- _tow.e.r to—s i,mu_1_ate—a_h i-=r_i_se—bu i 1_d i.ng.. Although the tower will not be used for live fires, we will still be able to simulate a fire attack in a hi -rise building. Hi -rise fires require a great deal of logistical support and coordination between the crews operating in a building of this size and height. This structure would also be used for training in high angle rescue, smoke ventilation practices, elevator rescue, aerial apparatus procedures, laddering, rope rescue, standpipe and sprinkler systems support, and for training in developing large water streams at a major fire such as was needed when Mawson Lumber burned. The burn building has been a source of concern for those living in the area of the proposed site. On June 29th we invited the neighbors to a demonstration burn at the Loveland Fire Department's training facility. We attempted to create a worst case scenario by setting a fire in the burn building using Class A materials and leaving the smoke machine running inside the building until it was completely filled with smoke. We then opened the building and allowed the smoke to escape and it dissipated within 125 feet of the structure. pg. 3, Poudre Fire Authority Training Facility One of the neighbors was concerned as to the sound levels. our fire engines would create when operating at the high RPM's needed to supply the fire attack lines. She brought a sound level meter and took her recordings at a distance of 400 feet from the engine. The highest level she recorded was 75db at that distance. The site plan for the facility calls for the burn building to be located approximately 1,100 feet from the nearest residence. Based on their observations and readings at the demonstration burn, the neighbors indicated we had satisfactorily addressed their concerns regarding the smoke and noise -levels. We scheduled a neighborhood meeting to be held on July 31st and went door to door handing out approximately 100 invitations to residents in the area. At that meeting the question of the amount of smoke we would produce was once again raised. Rather than have the answer come from someone with the PFA, I asked those who attended the demonstration burn in Loveland to respond to the question. Their answer was the amount of smoke was not an issue. When we presented our site plan at the neighborhood meeting it included additional structures we had hoped to develop in future years. Since that time we have learned what the City of Fort Collins is proposing to fund future PFA capital projects. This funding revenue will be used to build future fire stations and replace our fire engines ($227,000 average cost per engine), in addition to funding construction of the training facility. The number of dollars we will have available to fund all of our capital needs severely restricts our ability to consider a facility beyond the scope of what we are currently proposing. For us to attempt to anticipate what the availability of funds and training needs might be beyond 1995 is unrealistic. A major concern expressed at the neighborhood`meeti-ng—centered around the amount of traffic generated by a proposed classroom facility that could hold up to 100 students. The classroom is no longer part of our current plans. Should we have funding to build a classroom facility in the future, the decision we have made within the PFA is to build to serve the needs of our department rather than building to serve as a regional facility. This would eliminate the need for a classroom capable of holding 100 students. While the facility can still have the capability for usage by other emergency response agencies within the area, the PFA cannot afford to build a. regional training facility with the funds we have available. Whatever future expansion we might consider will also follow the Larimer County approval process and be subject to gaining such endorsement based on public input and County review. pg. 4, Poudre Fire Authority Training Facility Without the large classroom facility, the amount of traffic we would be generating during a high usage day would typically be between the hours of 9:OOam and 4:OOpm when we could have up to three fire engines and two light vehicles there at one time. The fire engines are staffed by either three or four personnel and the light vehicles would be those. used by members of our Training Division. Training sessions with this number of personnel would be conducted twice a day with three engines in the morning and three other engines in the afternoon. The members of the Training Division would be there to supervise each session. Exercises of this nature could be scheduled as often as six times per month when weather allows. There will be no full time employee's at the site and we could have as many as four fire engines per day there at different times to train on individual company skills. Should any night training be scheduled, it will need to be completed prior to 9:OOpm. We do not anticipate this will occur more than three evenings a month twice a year or a total of six evenings per year. Should we receive approval from the Larimer County Planning Commission at their hearing on October 16, 1991, we would hope to have the project considered by the Larimer County Commissioners on November 18, 1991. If you have any questions or require additional information, please feel free to contact me. Sincerely, 441g.G ne Chantler Division Enclosure