The Emergency Services Training Centre was born out of the idea that area firefighters needed to improve their skills.
"We started talking about building a training center in the fall of 2002," said FDNH Deputy Chief David Sparling. Sparling was a Captain at the time with the former Blyth and District Fire Department. "We tried to make it to the Fire College for courses as much as possible, but often our schedules didn't fit with when the College was offering courses, or for other reasons we just couldn't get there."
"Originally, we thought of constructing something that would cover about three quarters of an acre. This is so much more." The still-expanding-seven-acre training facility was a project initiated and completed by the department's firefighters themselves. It includes training facilities for farm machinery rescue, fire and rescue, auto extrication, silo and grain bin rescue, confined space rescue, propane emergencies and electrical emergencies. "This is so much bigger than we first intended."
In January 2003 the firefighters decided to go ahead with construction, looking for a fairly simple facility that would allow for training updates in just a few, most-needed areas, including farm machinery rescue and propane emergencies for their own members. But the more they talked to the community, the more they realized they could expand their plan.
"When local businesses heard that we hadn't had an update course in farm machinery rescue for a few years, it became very clear to them that they needed to support this project," Sparling said. "From there, it took on a life of its own." Sparling said the firefighters just kept getting offers of support from area businesses and residents. So the project kept expanding.
The land, machinery, building supplies, and $200,000 in cash were donated by local businesses. The 22 firefighters from the Blyth department built the facility themselves, putting in more than 120 hours each over the course of the year it took to construct that facility.
The original plan called for the construction phase to last three years until 2006, but with such community support it was finished two years ahead of schedule. "We are sincerely humbled by the community response to this project," Sparling said. Then Ontario Fire Marshal Bernard Moyle officially opened the centre at a ceremony on July 30, 2004.
Local firefighters began using the facility even before it was finished. When the containers arrived for the burn building, they were delivered to a local resident's back yard and firefighters began training with them. Once the property was prepared the containers were moved to their existing site and the ESTC began to take shape.
Since then the ESTC has continued its expansion; offering even more courses and more training opportunities every year. In 2009 we began looking for funding sources to assist with the next step in our growth; the addition of classrooms, wash rooms with full showers and proper place to store our apparatus and equipment. In April 2010 Huron-Bruce M.P. Ben Lobb announced the approval of $750,000.00 to help us build our new Technology Building. The ground breaking ceremony was held in early July 2010 and construction took place over the winter of 2010-2011.