Oshawa Fire Services opens state-of-the-art training facility

Apr. 18, 2023, Oshawa, Ont. – The City of Oshawa and Oshawa Fire Services officially celebrated the opening of a new fire training facility on April 14. Members of Council were on hand to take part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony and watch a live fire training demonstration.

The new state-of-the-art facility is located on the southfield of the Oshawa Executive Airport, off Stevenson Road North. Comprised of purpose-built training units, the facility combines leading edge instructional programs that train firefighters on multiple training simulations such as fire behaviour, search and rescue, ventilation and technical rescue.

The multi-storey facility consists of nine modified shipping containers configured to form a simulated four-storey building. The facility burns Class “A” materials, with two of the shipping containers containing burn chambers. It features a stair tower to an upper roof platform, moveable walls, bailout windows, repelling beams and multiple hose access points to help facilitate numerous training scenarios.

In 2021, Oshawa City Council approved investments in Oshawa Fire Services, including a $1.5 million investment to develop a fire training facility/tower to be located temporarily at the South Field of the Oshawa Executive Airport. The investment was funded with $1.125 million from the Fire Protection Development Charge Reserve and $375,000 from the Civic Property Development Reserve.

The development of the new fire training facility/tower supports the recommendation in the Fire Master Plan and provides opportunities for Oshawa Fire Services to perform vital health and safety training in live fire training exercises, search & rescue, high-rise firefighting and various other firefighting disciplines. The fire training facility also provides partnership opportunities for other fire services and fire education post-secondary programs.