If your home—or your life—has ever been saved by the heroic men and women of your local fire department, you can thank one very well-known facility in Old Bethpage for giving them the skills to do so.
Nassau County Fire Service Academy—responsible for training every single firefighter throughout the county—first opened its doors at 300 Winding Rd. back in 1962. Prior to that, it had been operating at the old Mitchel Field Air Force Base. Eventually, Nassau County stepped in and, with some land available in Old Bethpage, constructed the first buildings that would make up the academy’s new and permanent home. It has continued to evolve and expand over the years into a highly-regarded, state-of-the-art school, according to chief instructor John P. Brown.
“I’m very proud to be in this position, but I wouldn’t be able to do it without the staff that I have,” he said. “I have 71 instructors, all from Nassau County fire departments, and they’re the best. They’re smart, thorough and their hearts are in it.”
Brown has been a volunteer fireman in his hometown of Baldwin for 45 years and owns a business on the side that tests and repairs ladders for fire departments. He’s also been the academy’s chief instructor for the past 12 years.
The academy’s main purpose is to train volunteers for all of Nassau County’s 71 fire departments, in addition to junior firefighters as well. This is at no cost whatsoever, as it is fully funded by the county. For a fee, the academy will train private fire brigades for companies such as KeySpan, National Grid and the New York Power Authority or fire departments from Suffolk County.
The academy has a wide array of classrooms as well, with Brown noting that the 66 hours of training required to become a firefighter is roughly split up 50/50 between sitting at a desk while learning the “essentials of firefighting” and highly physical, hands-on work in the field. This is in addition to an extra 16 hours of hazardous material training as well.
“The training runs the gamut, from how to properly get dressed, protect yourself with a breathing apparatus, putting up and taking down ladders, carrying and fighting fires with a hose, search and rescue and car fires,” he said. “All of those different tasks that we’re asked to do as firefighters, they get all of the training here.”
The Fire Service Academy is situated in what used to be an old brickyard and takes up about 2.4 acres of land. It contains an array of training buildings and areas dedicated to all aspects of firefighting, including putting out fires and conducting rescue operations in different types of buildings and vehicles, repelling down structures, cutting through steel and concrete barriers and much more.
The academy services approximately 500 new Nassau County volunteer firemen a year—encompassing 24,000 training hours—as well as many veterans who use the facility to maintain and progress their existing skills.
“On any given night, a fire department comes here with a minimum of 20 guys and a maximum of about 50,” he said. “They’ll come out for four nights of training, multiply by 71 Nassau County fire departments…it’s quite a bit.”
The facility is made of up numerous structures that mimic residential housing, apartment complexes and more. The fires are made up of “burn packages” consisting of wooden shipping pallets ignited by an oil/water mixture, with the buildings themselves built completely out of concrete, steel and brick, ensuring that they will not catch fire during exercises. To make things tougher for firefighters, random vehicles are situated in inconvenient locations outside the buildings to impede their progress and “victims” in the form of mannequins are peppered about the structures, just waiting to be saved.
Many of the buildings themselves are actually visible to motorists on Winding Road, distinguished by the scorch-marks around windows. Up close, the overpowering odor of countless blazes lingers and upon venturing inside, the walls, ceilings and stairs are scorched a blackened grey.
Brown noted that the environmental impact of the academy is virtually nil. Water used on the compound is collected in their own drainage system, where oil, ash and chemicals are separated and disposed of properly. The cleaned water is recycled for more training and can be accessed throughout the grounds via hydrants, tanks and a water tower.
The Albertson Fire Department is one of many that made use of the academy this summer to help keep their lifesaving skills at the very cutting edge. While there, they had to fight a simulated blaze in a six-story tower reflecting an urban-style apartment complex, all while hauling weighty hoses up stairwells in full turnout gear in the middle of a very hot and humid August evening.
While this exercise may sound grueling, it nonetheless constitutes vital training that can make a world of difference in a real life-or-death situation, according to Albertson Fire Chief Jason Lasek.
“We can train in our own town, but this is the only place where we can do live burns, so we can get the real aspects of the heat, the smoke, along with different building layouts,” he said. “If you can face it back home, they can reproduce it here in a safe setting, so both our younger and senior members can hone their skills.”
The Nassau County Fire Service Academy’s reputation for excellence is a standard it will always endeavor to maintain in order to safeguard the lives of the public, Brown said.
“The staff here is head and shoulders above any place else in the country,” he said. “We’re considered one of the best fire training facilities in the United States and we’ve held that distinction for about 25 years.”
Check out the Nassau County Fire Service Academy online at www.veebfsa.org.
