The $11 million Pike County Training Facility opened on the weekend of May 19 with a fanfare of county and state officials in evidence at the ceremony. The center is near the Pike County Correctional Facility on Route 739, off Interstate 84.

The building’s first floor is equipped with bays for equipment and houses classrooms where emergency personnel can conduct briefings. Three classrooms can be separated or opened into one large room for 150 people. This room can also be used by non-profit groups for meetings or to host larger county meetings.

The second floor houses a ham radio center, a Red Cross room and a small food service area.

The top floor of the three-story building will be the high-tech nerve center of emergencies in Pike, eventually housing the 911 dispatch and emergency operations center. That unit will move into the facility in a few weeks, according to Rich Caridi, chairman of the Pike County Commissioners. Meanwhile, the unit will still be in operation at the county administration center in Milford.

Outside, six cement pads are the base for fire-training structures, including a propane “Christmas Tree” used to acclimate firefighters to the intense heat given off in a propane fire, and to teach them how to extinguish a propane fire with foam.

Other structures will simulate a tractor-trailer crash, vehicle crash, burning building, an explosive device, cramped basement rescue and offer a five-story rappel from a tower.

“Fire companies from other counties may come to train at the center,” Caridi said. “This facility is a major way that we can support these brave and dedicated people who volunteer for fire duty by training them with the latest in technical equipment.”