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Thomas J. Watts Training Center
Firefighters, whether in the largest cities or the smallest towns, face an increasing number of responsibilities and challenges in their endeavors to protect their neighbors from danger. The Members of the PHVFC are regularly training to address any situation that may arise in Pleasant Hills and our surrounding communities. In Mowry Park, the PHVFC Training Center serves as a place for us to do that. The Training Center includes our House Simulator/Maze, Burn Tower, and Confined Space Simulator.
House Simulator/Smoke Maze : “Building 46”:
This building contains a smoke maze on the first floor to train our firefighters not only in moving in tight spaces where we are regularly changing directions and climbing up and down to find our way through, but it also allows us to do it in very low visibility, which is a very common situation in a burning building. The second floor is designed to recreate the layout of a house and allows us to practice and train addressing different situations we may encounter, such as ventilation, search & rescue, and patient extrication.
Burn Tower “Tower 55”:
The Burn Tower allows us to train fighting fire in single and multi-level buildings. It includes three floors, an attic, and roof that enables us to create countless training scenarios that prepares us to protect our borough when called. The roof of this building is also setup to allow our firefighters to train in rope rescue.
Confined Space Simulator “Site 31”:
There is one part of our training center that you likely have never seen because it has been built completely underground with only one small access point. The confined space simulator allow us to train in rescuing people in places such as building collapses, sewers, and abandoned mines.
