On Jan. 13, Wharton-Smith joined North Port Fire Rescue to unveil the new, six-story, $1.5 million tower and burn building which will help train firefighters and better prepare them to save lives. And on Jan. 24, North Port Fire Chief Scott Titus lit the first ceremonial fire in the tower. See pictures and video highlights.
The Fire Training Tower will allow the city’s firefighters to hone their skills in various scenarios, including tactical rescue and live fire response. Each interior room is specified as either a “burn room” or a “smoke room” and is set up to look like a kitchen, dining room, bedroom, and living room with unique obstacles and features.
The 58-foot-tall building is made of 31 steel shipping containers custom fabricated to meet the customer’s needs, while the interiors are reinforced to withstand repeated training. The tower rests on 28 new shallow foundations with steel embeds for attachment.
After several attempts to bring the project to life, the city paid for the tower with Surtax dollars and Fire Rescue District funds. “The project has been 25 years in the making,” Chief Titus said in a prepared statement. “The tower will also be available to other agencies as a regional training location to meet and train with our mutual aid partners to ensure efficient and effective responses to emergencies we encounter daily.”
Chuck Hardwick, Project Manager, said, “I’ve done hospital projects all over Florida. I’ve done restaurants, and I’ve done office buildings, you name it. This is the first type of construction for a fire tower that I’ve ever done, and it’s so impressive to see in person. What I looked at on paper in the drawings for over a year now it did not do it justice for what we got in the end.”
