SCOTTSDALE, AZ — A new training facility for the Scottsdale Fire Department will aim to help more than just its own firefighters and trainees.
Ground broke on the 10,000-square-foot facility, located in Tempe just south of Scottsdale city limits, in September.
In 2019, residents voted it in through a bond initiative.
Scottsdale Fire Captain David Folio said they were "way overdue" to have a new training facility.
"The showers were breaking, and we didn't have a good facility to train really anybody, all of our new recruits," Folio said. " We're super excited about this facility."
The new facility will have a 4-5 story burn tower, a skid pad for driver training, conference rooms, and places to train technical and air craft rescue crews, among other features on site.
Folio said it's all about reciprocation with this project.
He said other fire departments in the Valley, like Tempe's, have allowed Scottsdale to use their training facilities in the past.
"When about ours open[s], they're going to redo theirs, so we'll bring Tempe and allow them to use our facility, so it's a working relationship that we've built," he said.
Folio said in 2025, more than half the Scottsdale Fire force will be eligible to retire, part of the need to get this facility built, and fast.
"We need to be able to run our own academies, put 30 people through, so that they're trained and ready to go on the streets to be able to duplicate the people that are leaving," he said.
Their goal is to complete construction by the start of 2025.
