A new training facility is in the works for the South Floral Park Fire Department.
The department received a $427,803 Community Revitalization Project grant from the Nassau County Legislature on Monday to cover the full cost of constructing a training facility for its volunteer firefighters, a project that Chief Kevin W. Bellamy said is critically needed.
“This will help us train the way we need to train so we can put fires out,” Bellamy said. “These training houses are expensive, so this is really good for us…It will let us do more.”
Bellamy said the new training facility would be built near the existing firehouse and be similar to what other, larger departments in the area use: two large storage containers placed on top of each other, retrofitted to replicate homes, apartments and businesses.
It’s a big step up from the department’s current facility, Bellamy said, which is a two-car garage over 30 years old. He said the department can’t spray water in the current facility or complete certain training exercises due to fear of it collapsing and space constraints.
In the new facility, Bellamy said firefighters will undergo search and rescue, roof, window and floor entry and ladder exercises, practice navigating dark and smoke-filled areas filled with furniture, learn how to move around a firehouse while on the ground and other training work.
“We train to do everything. We respond everywhere in the area,” Bellamy said. “We have to make sure that we have proper equipment and training, because I don’t want to knock on anybody’s door and tell them that their child was injured because we didn’t have the proper training or we didn’t have the proper stuff to use.”
Just as his department has trained at other nearby departments’ facilities in the past, Bellamy said he’ll be welcoming them into South Floral Park’s new training center, making it a piece of equipment that will benefit all surrounding communities.
“We all train together, because the bottom line is, it could be two o’clock in the morning, somebody’s having the worst night of their life,” Bellamy said. “Then, here comes South Floral Park, here comes New High Park Fire Departments. They can jump on our truck and we can jump on their truck and work together, because we all train together and are familiar with each other and each other’s equipment.”
“The end result is trying to put the fire out,” he continued. “You can do that on the back of anybody’s vehicle, as long as you train together and you know each other.”
Bellamy said he’s been working with Democratic Legislator Carrié Solages to obtain the grant since the beginning of the year. Solages said the two have met multiple times, and he’s visited the current facility.
“Firemen deserve a place to train while they await an emergency, a place to learn and to further their camaraderie,” Solages said. “It’s important to have the right accommodations for each firehouse…I went there and I just thought our volunteers deserved better.”
Bellamy said the grant is the only way they can fund a project like this because the department operates on a small budget due to the lack of businesses in the area, a key factor in funding decisions.
Although the exact construction timeline is unclear, Bellamy said the department has already begun developing plans and expects construction to take one to two months once it commences.
He said he thinks the new facility will encourage the younger volunteer firefighters to keep training and help keep his team safe.
“Having these training houses just enhances the type of training that we can do,” Bellamy said. “Anything that will make it safer for the guys to go home at the end of the day is what I try to do.”
