OCEANSIDE — At a dedication ceremony July 28, the city of Oceanside unveiled its newly constructed state-of-the-art Fire Training Tower at 110 Jones Road, funded by Measure X revenue.
This four-story training tower facility is a live controlled fire training structure, which provides conditions similar to actual fire calls: searing heat in live fire burn rooms on various floors, a myriad of smoke-filled halls and rooms, interior and exterior stairways, bail out windows, and multiple floors where people may be in need of rescue. Crews will practice forced entry, working in dark and confined spaces, using breathing apparatus in thick smoke, and fighting live fires. Personnel will also practice using a building’s pressurized water standpipe system to pump water to needed areas. The structure’s rooftop includes rope rescue anchors and an area to train on breaching a roof. All features are designed to ensure Oceanside Fire Department (OFD) personnel safely prepare for dangerous situations in order to save lives and property.
The new Fire Training Tower replaces an aged one-story facility on the training grounds and consolidates multiple onsite and offsite training facilities into one location.
The Fire Training Tower was dedicated to former Oceanside Fire Department Training Officer Everett Stephens. Stephens became one of Oceanside’s first full-time firefighters around 1940, and served the city for 29 years. Stephens was known as a skilled professional dedicated to protecting the community and drilling the safety strategies, lifesaving techniques, hazards and precautions of the profession into new firefighters.
Oceanside’s Everett Stephens Fire Training Tower will serve not only new OFD recruits and the entire Department, but the facility will be available for regional public safety training use as well.
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