Iowa City firefighters practicing in buildings slated for demolition

IOWA CITY - Armed with lumber, saws, nail guns and other equipment, members of the Iowa City Fire Department's Special Operations Response Team spent Monday afternoon shoring up a corner of the former Pleasant Valley Nursery on South Gilbert Street.

The exercise was part of the team's Emergency Building Shoring Training and members were tasked with fortifying the building - which had previously been partially collapsed using city equipment - before rescuing a mannequin placed inside.

Normally, fire departments practice skills like these in a special training facility, but the Iowa City Fire Department has been without one since December 2014 when it vacated a three-story training tower located in the Iowa River flood plain along with the former animal shelter and wastewater management facility. That land is to be incorporated into the city's Riverfront Crossings District that encompasses property south of downtown to Highway 6.

Since that time, the fire department has relied on a number of methods to continue training, including using Coralville's facility and - as was the case on Monday - working in buildings slated for demolition.

Capt. Zach Hickman, leader of the Special Operations Response Team, said the department relishes the opportunity to practice techniques in realistic settings.

'The fact that we have this building is such a unique opportunity,” he said. Lt. Brandon Smith, the department's training officer, said crews have been at the site of the former nursery, 'literally every day since the last week in March,” doing different types of training, including search and rescue, forcible entry, roof ventilation and commercial fire attack.

'We flowed a lot of water in that building,” Smith said. 'Typically, when we have an acquired structure, we don't get to do that.”

New Facility

Fortunately, the fire department won't be without a training facility much longer.

Deputy Chief Brian Platz said officials are in the planning phases of a new training area that is to be built on the public works campus off South Gilbert Street on the south end of Iowa City. When finished, the facility is to feature a four-story tower and three-story residential training structure with burn rooms, a built-in smoke generator, cut outs for practicing roof ventilation and the ability to change the floor plan so firefighters can practice in unfamiliar settings.

'We're excited, to say the least,” Platz said. 'It's going to be built to provide a lot of the things we need in order to stay proficient at our jobs.”

Platz said he expects the design phase to wrap up shortly and is hopeful the project goes to bid this year.

In the meantime, the department plans to continue relying on Coralville's training facility and structures destined for demolition for training.

Pros and Cons

Platz said training at Coralville's facility has been helpful and has strengthened the relationship between the two departments. But, it requires more work and having to hire crews to backfill the Iowa City station while training takes place.

'It does involve quite a bit more coordination on our side,” Platz said. 'It's a little bit more work on the front end to make those trainings happen.”

Real structures also have limitations that a permanent training facility doesn't. For example, once a hole is cut in a roof, that hole is there for good.

'It's not a situation you can replicate over and over again,” Platz said.

However, both Platz and Smith agree that practicing in real buildings - including houses, apartments and commercial structures - not only allows firefighters to stay closer to home, but it provides a more realistic setting.

'You're using the actual structure to train in. It's not simulated,” said Smith. 'They allow us to get in there and do whatever we need to do. We've basically had our own little training facilities located throughout the city.”

Fire department officials are notified when demolition permits come into the city, and they also rely on folks like Randy Miller, who is developing the former nursery property where firefighters trained on Monday. Miller, who plans to construct a mixed-use building with both apartments and commercial space on the site, said it was simply 'a good opportunity to help them out.”

'They're good to us, good to the community,” Miller said. 'It was good to accommodate them and let them do some training.”

Platz said the fact training has continued without a permanent facility, is a testament to the people working for the department.

' ... Obviously, the whole thought of losing our training facility, that was pretty difficult,” he said. They worked to create solutions and continue training and make sure we're prepared for any kind of emergency that might occur.”

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