Ground Breaking for FDNY High-Rise Simulator
A new high-rise building is going up on Randalls Island. And as soon as it’s complete, the FDNY will set it on fire.
Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta joined Mayor Michael Bloomberg, President of the Leary Firefighters Foundation Denis Leary and FDNY Foundation Vice Chair Andrew Guarino on January 23 to break ground on a new high-rise simulator at the Fire Academy.
“High rise fires are a notoriously complex and dangerous part of the job,” Mayor Bloomberg said. “This new simulator will enable us to train our firefighters under the most extreme conditions.”
The $4.5 million simulator - which is scheduled for completion in 2009 - will be equipped with mock residential, office and commercial layouts to reproduce real-life fire conditions and help firefighters improve their skills in fighting fires in high-rise buildings.
The 4,000-square-foot structure will be a four-story addition to an existing building at the Fire Academy and will feature a fire and flashover simulator, a central smoke system, a dry standpipe system, mock elevators and stairways, a simulated fire command station and video hookups on each floor for real-time review and instruction.
The simulator will replicate the heat and gases that are often encountered by firefighters during high-rise fires that can quickly spread and create hazardous conditions. This training will improve firefighters’ ability to predict what they will encounter during real fires.
“The whole purpose [of the simulator] is to recreate real conditions in a safe, controlled environment,” said Commissioner Scoppetta.
The unveiling came on the three year anniversary of the tragic day when the FDNY lost three firefighters in two separate fires -- Lt. John Bellew, Lt. Curtis Meyran and Firefighter Richard Sclafani.
Funding for the simulator was provided by the FDNY Foundation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the City as well as $3 million from the Leary Firefighters Foundation.
It will become an important part of the Fire Department’s newly expanded 23-week training program for probationary firefighters. Since 2004, more than $60 million has been dedicated to upgrading the facilities at the Fire Academy.
“Training firefighters is like training a football team … but this is a team that always shows up first, so the more we give them, the better off we all are,” said Mr. Leary. “As a guy who fights fake fires, I have a lot of respect for the people who do it for real.
