By ANDY GARDNER

WEST POTSDAM -- After several years of struggle to get the project up and running, St. Lawrence County's firefighters will once again be able to train at the county Fire Training Facility, Blanchard Road.

Local fire officials and Senator Joe Griffo held a brief conference at the facility today to celebrate what they called a joint effort in getting it back on its feet after sitting in disrepair for the last six years or so.

The $470,000 training ground, which the facility's co-operations manager Dale Gardner said should be ready to use in about three weeks, was financed by a combination of government monies and grassroots efforts.

Griffo, along with senators Betty Little and Patty Ritchie, successfully worked to get $200,000 in state money to help build the new facility, according to Fire Training Facility co-operations manager Dale Gardner.

"They were good supporters," Gardner said.

"These types of facilities play such an important role," Griffo said. "Firefighters have to be very well-educated and prepared as they go in … there's a lot that goes on here."

He also said the county IDA and legislature also pitched in, along with private donors through local grassroots efforts.

Fire Training Facility co-operations manager Bob Kerr said he hopes the new training center will go a long way toward recruiting and retaining new volunteer firefighters, a challenge faced by departments both near and far.

State law requires 104 hours of training to get Firefighter I certification, the most basic level. That investment plus having to travel outside the area do learn what now can be taught in West Potsdam has impacted local fire brigades, Gardner said.

"I've heard so many [potential volunteers] say 'I can't find the time, I'm done,'" Gardner said. "It's not the Kiwanis or Lions Club or Rotary, not to slam those clubs."

The county fire training facility was shuttered about six years ago, before a live fire training, “an OFPC boss was here to observe a Firefighter I class and inspected the building,” Gardner told NorthCountryNow in 2011.

“He took one look at the ceiling and said, ‘You’re done. You’re not going in there. It’s not safe. This building is coming down.”

Moving all that around the North Country inspired fire personnel in St. Lawrence County to begin planning and work on a new building at the old site on Blanchard Road.

The old tradition was that firefighters trained on what were called “acquisition structures.”

“Someone who had an old barn or camp that was broken down, that they weren’t using, that they were tired of paying the taxes on, would sign off on it. ‘You burn it and I’ll give you a case of beer,’ they would say. That’s how it used to work.”

But training standards have since been developed that require more training and better supervision than there were under the old system.

“They need to train, and they have to have a fire to train,” Gardner said.

The first training building at West Potsdam was designed by a contractor with no help from an engineer or architect. It was built with durability in mind, without a lot of attention to other factors.

“No engineer, no architect, no code,” Gardner said. Still, it helped firefighters in the county get experience with a real fire without the urgency of a real emergency.

But over time the structure decayed. Ceiling panels were coming down and there were other signs of wear and tear. “The concrete in there would get heated up and then got wet, making steam that expands to 1700 times the volume of the water,” Gardner said. That was making the concrete flake away.

Meanwhile, new training standards were written by state and federal authorities and the National Fire Protection Association.

Training in a Firefighter I course today includes 104 hours total, Gardner said, with “some sit down and some hands-on sessions.” The hands-on work is for things like how to raise a ladder, how to knock down a door safely, and how to get in and out safely.

“We need to give them a live fire experience. Otherwise it would be like driver ed without putting you in a car.”