PIQUA – The City of Piqua welcomed the public — as well as regional fire departments and law enforcement agencies — to an open house on Thursday, April 18 at the Piqua Public Safety Regional Training Facility.
Attendees toured the facility and watched demonstrations of local first responders rappelling on the outside of the building and conducting other training exercises. The open house did not include any active fire or smoke demonstrations.
“The open house was an opportunity for our residents and our neighboring departments to learn more about the facility and how it is vital to supporting our fire, emergency medical services and police personnel to be prepared for real-life scenarios,” Piqua Safety Services Director Rick Byron said.
Local and regional departments will use the facility to conduct training in multiple areas of required experience including active fire evolutions, search and rescue operations, ventilation exercises, confined space training, forcible entry practices and ladder climb trials. The facility features moveable partitions to allow for varying configurations of the internal layout.
“This was also an opportunity to share the safety of the fire ignition materials that will be used at the site, including straw and heat-treated wood pallets,” Byron said. “The training exercises that will occur at this facility ensure that our first responders have the education and experience critical to handling the variety of situations to which they respond in service to our community.”
Residents may sign up to be notified via email and/or text message when live fire firefighter training will occur at the facility by visiting piquaoh.org/list.aspx.
