Mooresville Fire Training Facility Approved

MOORESVILLE – The Mooresville Fire Department will construct a five-story, $504,000 building made of prefabricated metal shipping containers in which firefighters from across Iredell and other counties will train to fight fires.

The Mooresville Board of Commissioners voted 5-to-1 last week to build the fire and rescue training facility for $826,607.

The cost includes $322,607 for a 24-foot entrance road, utility extensions, a 150-foot by 150-foot training facility concrete area and a parking area with a security fence.

Mooresville has 25 multi-story buildings, many of them four and five stories, so having the training building is critical, Fire Chief Wes Greene said at a previous commissioners’ meeting.

He said the building would save the town $38,000 because firefighters would no longer have to travel for training to a similar facility at Gaston College in Gaston County twice a year. With three shifts, the department makes six trips a year there with its equipment – two trips per shift.

Now, firefighters will be able to train every day, Mooresville Assistant Fire Chief Shane LaCount told the commissioners last week. The department has 87 personnel.

The building will be on town-owned land isolated from the public behind the Mooresville Public Operations Center, 2523 Charlotte Highway (U.S. 21), LaCount said.

The building will have three rooms where firefighters will train in putting out live fires. Firefighters will also practice search and rescue, confined-space and high-angle rescues, forcible-entry techniques and high-rise responses by a single fire company or multiple fire companies.

LaCount said work on the road and utility lines could begin in three months, with the entire project done within a year.
The department, meanwhile, has received $2,000 annual fee commitments to use the building from the Lake Norman, Shepherds, South Iredell, Troutman, Mount Mourne and Sherrills Ford fire departments. Mooresville police plan to train in the building, and Mitchell Community College also intends to use it.

The building will be available to regional fire training schools and fire departments in Rowan and other counties for $2,000 annually.

Mooresville will pay for the project with about $500,000 left from voter-approved bonds for the Public Operations Center, with the remainder coming from the town’s fund balance, said Maia Setzer, the town’s director of administration and finance.

Commissioner Rhett Dusenbury voted against spending the $826,607, saying half the amount should come from others that use the building.

 

PRIMARY AGENCY: Mooresville Fire Department