Iowa City Fire Department reshuffling with loss of training facility

IOWA CITY - With Riverfront Crossings District development providing several examples of new construction, one related casualty has been the Iowa City Fire Department's training facility.

December's closure of the three-story training facility at 1001 S. Clinton St. has forced the department to reshuffle training exercises and equipment storage until a new facility is built.

Those storage needs could be addressed as soon as next year.

Iowa City Fire Chief John Grier said officials knew, with plans in place to turn that area into a community park, that eventually the facility would be closed.

'We always knew that down the line there was the chance that we would have to relocate out of there,” Grier said. 'It just came quicker than anybody anticipated.”

The facility served as a central location for the department's regular training operations since 2002, providing a space for classes, forced entry and extrication practices and some live fire exercises.

Without the facility, the department has been focusing more on video conference classes, which allow crews to remain at all four city fire stations, and plan to use Coralville's regional training facility for controlled burn practices.

Grier said added focus will be placed on finding opportunities to perform live training sessions in vacant buildings slated for demolition, such as the entry and search training that took place Wednesday at a former residence at 918 E. Bloomington St.

'We're certainly taking advantage of more opportunities,” he said. 'Over the years I think we've done a great job of doing what we can with what we've got.”

Iowa City's fiscal year 2016 budget, slated for a March vote, includes a $700,000 line item to build a new storage facility on the city's public works campus off South Gilbert Street. The building would provide shared space for the city's police and fire departments.

Discussion on a future training facility will likely occur at a later date, city Finance Director Dennis Bockenstedt said.

John Crane, Iowa City firefighter speaking on behalf of the Iowa City Association of Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 610 union, said equipment once stored in the training facility is now kept in the city's four fire stations.

'So now that that's not available to us all our stuff is kind of scattered around,” Crane said. 'It's kind of a logistical challenge to conduct our business as we used to.”

Crane, who wrote the Iowa City Council on the matter earlier this month, said the union encourages the city council to build a new training facility to bring sessions back to a central location.

'We feel a city as progressive as Iowa City, with all the growth and development going on, we just want the fire department and other emergency service departments not to take a step back,” Crane said. 'The ultimate hope is you'd be able to replicate what we had and possibly improve on that.”

Coralville Fire Chief Dave Stannard said the Coralville training facility, located near the Magellan Pipeline Company off Hughes Street, was first built in 2006 and has served firefighters from as far away as Burlington, Grinnell and Cedar Rapids.

'We built it with that in mind, being kind of a regional complex,” Stannard said.

Stannard said Iowa City firefighters haven't used the building since the closure of their facility, but said discussions have taken place on the matter.

'We've offered it to them and they're welcome to use it,” he said.

Crane said the ability to host training operations at Coralville's facility is helpful, but not viable long term as it takes responding firefighters out of city limits and, if an emergency were to occur, would increase response time.

Grier said, in any training session, whether in Iowa City or another community, extra coordination takes place to ensure backup responders are available in case of an emergency.

While the transition period will require more coordination, Grier said the one thing that will not be sacrificed is public safety.

'The safety of the community is at the top of our list, we will not leave the safety uncovered,” he said. 'That's just not a part of our plan.”