(Butler, PA) A three-story Butler County Community College burn building used to train tristate firefighters to save lives and property is undergoing a $76,000 project to replace about 1,150 interior haydite blocks degraded by temperatures ranging from 300 to 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Butler County Fire Chiefs Association has pledged $30,000 to the BC3 Education Foundation to defray costs associated with repairing walls that define 13 rooms within a building where up to 30 firefighters can simultaneously navigate “with enough smoke, in pitch-black, zero visibility,” Kevin Smith said.
Smith is a volunteer firefighter in Butler Township and an administrator in the Public Safety Training department within BC3’s noncredit Workforce Development division.
Fire departments or industrial fire brigades from Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Crawford, Erie, Lawrence, Venango, Washington or Westmoreland counties in Pennsylvania, or from Ohio or West Virginia, enhanced skills in the building in 2024, Smith said.
“Our whole job is to protect lives and property. Practicing in a realistic setting prepares them for when it does happen.”
Straw and pallets placed within the building are ignited with a flare or a torch, Smith said. First-responders shouldering 85 pounds of turnout gear then enter the inferno to practice searching for occupants or to weave a fire hose through the rooms to extinguish the blaze, Smith said.
Scenarios orchestrated within the 3,375-square-foot structure enable first-responders “to learn how to operate in an environment they will encounter,” said Smith, a volunteer firefighter for 36 years. “Our whole job is to protect lives and property. Practicing in a realistic setting prepares them for when it does happen.”
The burn building opened in 2022 as part of a 13-acre Public Safety Training Center on the college’s main campus in Butler Township and, Smith said, is used to train firefighters year-round.
“(BC3’s burn building) is a critical component to ensuring service delivery of fire and rescue services to not only Butler County, but to the surrounding counties that utilize it as well.”
Scott Frederick is president of the Butler County Fire Chiefs Association that represents 31 fire companies or departments and 600 active paid or volunteer firefighters.
“With its central location, (BC3’s burn building) is a tremendous resource to train and equip firefighters with the knowledge necessary to go into fires and save lives and property,” Frederick said.
“It is a critical component to ensuring service delivery of fire and rescue services to not only Butler County, but to the surrounding counties that utilize it as well.”
“The fire chiefs stepped up in a big way”
Funds contributed to repairing the burn building were raised through training events, said Frederick, who is also Butler Township’s director of emergency services.
“The fire chiefs stepped up in a big way,” said Brian Opitz, BC3’s executive director of operations who with Smith identified damaged haydite blocks to be replaced in the project that will close the burn building for up to seven weeks.
“Haydite is made to take that heat, but it still deteriorates,” Opitz said. “It starts to crack from heat stress and crumble a bit. So we wanted to replace it before it might fall with people inside who are training.”
The structure is supported by vertical columns of concrete reinforced with rebar and steel and, like its ceilings and floors, are protected by fire brick and do not need to be repaired, Opitz said.
Employees of Troy Jay Construction, Slippery Rock, have begun to remove and replace what company owner Troy Grossman estimates to be nearly 30 percent of the building’s interior haydite blocks.
BC3 and its burn building are accredited by the State Fire Academy and the Office of the State Fire Commissioner as a testing site for firefighters pursuing up to 150 certifications, Smith said.
The structure was also used by nearly 200 firefighters training in the Butler County Fire School in August, Smith said. BC3 also instructs approximately 40 different open-enrollment firefighter courses annually, Smith said.
Rooms within BC3’s burn building range in size from 10 feet by 10 feet to 20 feet by 12 feet, Smith said.
