Neighboring departments will be invited to train as well
By Jim Newell
Managing Editor
jnewell@mihomepaper.com
OXFORD TWP. — When firefighters head into a burning structure to rescue occupants and battle blazes, they are often met with an unknown floor plan and hazardous conditions that they cannot always anticipate.
Now, the Oxford Fire Department will be getting a Sable System three-story training structure that will allow firefighters to train for a variety of real-world scenarios, while saving money in the long run.
Oxford Fire Chief Matthew Majestic said it’s important for firefighters to have a training facility to practice with before – and after – going out into actual situations. Being able to go back after an experience at an actual fire and recreate the situation to examine how firefighters responded is a valuable learning opportunity for the future.
“It’s paramount. Departmentally, we try to do a set schedule of monthly training that hits things, and then we have stuff that we do weekly. But usually once a month we try for a big scenario of some sort or a refresher of some sort,” Majestic said. “What this will do is provide us an opportunity to address needs as they pop up. We’ll literally have the opportunity to go out the back door at the station and set up that same scenario and build off of what we learn.”
Majestic said he hopes that if all goes well the department could break ground in the spring, prep the site and have the training structure up in late spring or early summer.
The three-story structure is made from three 40-foot containers and includes two burn rooms, a reconfigurable maze, a wall breach and pitched roof props, interior and exterior stairs, a rappelling tower, a forced entry door, sprinkler system and temperature monitoring system.
The structure will be constructed on land behind Oxford Fire Station #1, 96 N. Washington St.

Training
After a fire or scenario, the department does after action reviews of the incidents to build off of what they experienced. The reviews allow the department to “learn from those experiences and improve upon that,” Majestic said.
“We’ll definitely be able to learn from our experiences and improve upon that,” Majestic said. “After fires we try to do our own after-action reviews, whether formal or informal, and say ‘What went right, what didn’t go right, what lessons did we learn, what can we improve upon?’ Now, we’ll have a better opportunity of doing that in the future.”
Currently, the fire department uses buildings that have been scheduled for demolition to train in a “realistic” environment when it can get permission from the property owner. The department also goes to the training facility at Oakland Community College, but fees of up to $2,000 a day for rent, a safety officer and instructor can be quite expensive, Majestic said.
Oxford schools has allowed firefighters to train at one of their buildings on Drahner Road but firefighters cannot spray water, drag hoses across floors, break windows or cause other damage that they may have to do in a real scenario.
“There’s only so much you can do without damaging their property, which is something we don’t want to do because if we have the opportunity to use some property we want to be able to use it and not ruin it,” Majestic said. “This training tower will provide a place where we don’t have to worry about breaking stuff, we don’t have to worry about something getting wet, or dinged or damaged.”
Because requirements from the National Fire Protection Association and the EPA on doing live burns of combustible materials are quite stringent, the Oxford training structure will not have live fires, Majestic said. However, the department will use smoke machines to simulate a real fire scenario.

Sharing the Tower
Oxford is part of the North Oakland and Oakland County Mutual Aid Associations and has several mutual aid agreements with neighboring departments, all of which rely on one another when there is a major incident.
Opening up the training structure for other departments to use – like Addison, Brandon, Independence, Metamora, Oakland and Orion fire departments – is a benefit to everyone, officials say.
“What our plans are is to be able to share it with all of our immediate mutual aid neighbors,” Majestic said. “It will help with coordinated training because we rely on each other so much when we get a structure fire. None of us are big departments up here in the north end of the county and we definitely need each other to get the job done…we need to train with each other so that we know who we’re dealing with on a regular basis. And, thankfully, we do that now.”
When the old Dominican Sisters property on Drahner Road caught fire, or when condos exploded in the Keatington Condo Complex in Orion Township, departments from the surrounding departments responded to provide aid, Majestic said.
“It will benefit all of our residents with trained first responders who have to come and fight your fire or extricate you from a possible fire in a business or a house. It’s giving us an opportunity to be a training hub in conjunction,” Oxford Township Supervisor Jack Curtis said.

Financing
The training structure is being financed through grants, donations, a land sale and fire department operating funds.
Oxford Township Communications and Grant Manager C.J. Carnacchio learned that the Gary Sinise Foundation – a nonprofit organization dedicated to honoring military members, veterans, first responders, their families, and those in need – informed him on Jan. 8 that it would award $70,566 toward the purchase of the training structure. This is the second time Carnacchio had applied for the grant on behalf of the fire department.
“I really want to thank the Gary Sinise Foundation for awarding us this grant. This was the final piece of the puzzle that we needed in order to purchase this structure,” Carnacchio said. “They really came through for Oxford and we really appreciate the Gary Sinise Foundation supporting our community, supporting our fire department, supporting our first responders.”
The Oxford Fire Department will contribute $37,206.60 from its budget and $69,000 from a previous land sale. A combined $225,000 will come from three marijuana facilities – Frequency Wellness, Lifted Investments III, LLC and Kurative, LLC.
“Part of our allowing cannabis in (township) districts was that community benefits were garnered. The township obtained almost $300,000 from these from the buying and sale of property, and by community benefit grants that were issued to us,” Curtis said. “It’s just a win-win for everybody.”
The remaining $7,500 comes from a $5,000 grant from Enbridge Fueling Futures and a $2,500 donation from Benson Ford, Jr.
“I’m always willing to help our fire department in any way that I can. This tower is going to be a great asset to the department, to the community. It’s going to help train our firefighters, it’s going to help make our community a safer place to live,” Carnacchio said.

Sharing the training structure with the public
Carnacchio said once the training structure is up, the township and fire department will plan an open house-style event and ribbon cutting so that the public can come and see the structure and talk to firefighters.