The end is in sight for construction of Tulsa’s $13.2 million fire training center.
Builders should be done by the end of November. Tulsa Community College paid $2.2 million for the land the facility is on, and Northeast Campus Provost John Gibson said firefighters will likely start using the training center in the spring.
"It's also going to help us expand our outreach to students," Gibson said. "Cadets coming through the academy, firefighters I and II, they can roll right into the associate's degree with us and move on from there."
There’s a mock fire station, classroom space and a six-story drill tower, which will host realistic training scenarios, complete with computer-controlled smoke and flames.
Tulsa Fire Chief of Physical Resources Mike Mallory led city officials on a tour of the training center today as builders worked. He said this is a huge step up from the decades-old facility currently in use.
"We'll need some more advancements as time goes on, but it'll help us a bunch," Mallory said. "But an even greater thing is it's available for the neighboring departments throughout the state and region of the country.
"If we train with each other, work with each other and become more standardized, it just makes operations that much better."
Construction was funded by 2005 general obligation bonds.
