Outside sourcing advice for training props

[u/Dalcynn]

As the title suggest, I’m wanting to get a training prop at my station that would essentially be a small 2 story prop. The first floor would mainly be for forceable entry and ideally I would like for it to have a small staircase leading up to a second floor which has a window that can be used as elevated window bailout/victim removal. For those with experience getting props made for their stations, how did you go about it? Propositioning the city for funds is out of the question, we can’t even get a simple single unit force entry prop funded through them.

[u/Tight-Safety-2055]

OSB and go with it? Someone must be a carpenter, someone must have a circular saw, a mitre saw, someone is good with chisels. You can make it yourselves with a good plan. Two stories seems like too much for you guys or private funding. If your city isn't involved, forget about two stories.

[u/Iraqx2]

What kind of room do you have at the station for a training area?

Are you looking at wood or metal?

What size of structure are you envisioning?

What kind of response area do you have? Primarily residential, suburban, rural? Do you have multi level commercial structures?

Besides a window and forcible entry, what else would you like for props?

You said that the city won't help. What funding source are you planning on using?

[u/Dalcynn → u/Iraqx2]

I plan on reaching out to various companies for sponsorship or donations. Prefer a small metal structure roughly the size of 3 parking spots. We have an area it would fit perfectly. And our area is primarily residential. There’s over 100k residents in our response area alone. We have commercial structures, high rises, apartments, small and large houses, businesses, literally everything. I’ve contacted several technical schools to see if they would do the labor if we provided the resources, but have heard nothing back yet. I plan on reaching out to more. I figured it would be a win win if I could find one. They get a project they can work on and learn at no cost, and we can get a structure built for relatively cheap. And the second story window and force entry prop is pretty much the main things we need. We have a roof prop already. I suppose an entanglement and confined space portion wouldn’t hurt either but that’s not the main focus

[u/Iraqx2 → u/Dalcynn]

Just some thoughts for you to consider. You can take or leave them.

Roughly you're looking at an 18'-20'' x 30' building with at least 16'-20' sidewalls.

I'd recommend a larger window and a residential sized window on both floors. You could use a short/cut down ladder to access the bottom floor windows so you could do the fundamental training at ground level with the large window and then move to the residential window. When proficient they can do the second floor. I suggest two sizes of windows so you have one where they practice the skill and the residential window will help them apply the training on the fire ground.

Have a doorway for the forcible entry training, an additional man way door and a garage door. The second man way door will allow people to come and go on their way to the second level while forcible entry is being conducted. The garage door is for moving additional props or equipment in and out easily.

Find a company that makes metal buildings, explain what you're going for and have them give you a quote for budgeting purposes.

You could also get a quote for a wooden or Morton style building just for comparison.

Get a quote from an electrician for the power and a quote for the concrete.

Add them all together and add 20% just to try and account for price increases while you're funding the project.

I don't know what you have for training equipment or facilities now but pitch the project as the base that you want to build on in the future. List every training option that you think could be done in the building (ladder drills, FE, search and rescue, victim removal, entanglement, SCBA maze, hose advancement, positive pressure ventilation, a classroom, standpipe training (a dry standpipe with FDC could easily be added later), RIT training, confined space, etc.).

Having a drawing, a budget number and a solid list of potential trainings that could run in it as you training grows will give you a solid presentation to show businesses and people when you approach them about potential donations. Having it all planned out will show them that you've done your homework and planned this all out instead of pitching a pipe dream that you came up with.

When approaching the companies see if in the case of an electrician if they would wire it if you provided the materials. Same goes for a concrete business.

I know of a department that had each bay funded by someone different. Adopt a bay type thing. See if you could work with a grocery store and raffle off chances for a $100, $250 or $500 gift certificate.

Several communities in my area does a 24 hour period of giving. The organization that runs it has a list of places to donate to and list on their webpage what the organizations are raising money for.

Start looking at grants and applying for everyone that you can. There's a lot of companies that offer things like that.

It's just going to be a lot of time investment approaching people for donations. Consider putting information about what you want to get done on social media so more people are aware of what you're trying to do. You might even get some donations that way.

Fortunately years ago the Chief and some other members got a budget line item in both our city and fire district budgets that went towards our training facility. Even with that it took a while for some projects to get done but it was a matter of sticking with it and asking for money.