FOND DU LAC, WI (WTAQ) – A groundbreaking event was held on Wednesday for a new facility that will allow a local fire department to better serve their community.
The Fond du Lac Fire & Rescue Department is celebrating a brand new public safety training center that they are hoping will be complete by the end of the year.
The new center will actually service both the fire and police department and Assistant Fire Chief Erick Gerritson explains the benefit to his department.
“Fire aspect will have a four-story live burn training facility,” he explains. “We’ll have two rooms where we actually can burn wood, paper things of that nature.”
This has been a long time coming for the town.
“We have been planning this for over five years,” says Gerritson. “We do not currently have any training facility in Fond du Lac.”
And without a facility, the fire and rescue department has been limited in their training capabilities.
“We can not do any live burns, all we can do is cold smoke or cedar smoke and smoke up a room,” explains Gerritson.
Prior to the new facility, the nearest training location was at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton. Gerritson says this was a major inconvenience for his department.
“Logistically to get people up there to do training just didn’t work for us down here in Fond du Lac,” he says.
The center will be constructed in two phases as it’s built to serve both members of the Fond du Lac Fire and Police departments.
