Features

Mississippi State Fire Academy

Curtiss Marbury and Reggie Bell, State Fire Academy discuss plans for the new Leak City prop with Mark McCarver and Illicia Boaler, Mississippi Public Service Commission.

Some say it is Mississippi’s best-kept secret, but the statistics don’t support it. The Mississippi State Fire Academy must be well known because 17,000 emergency responders and industry safety personnel requested and received training at the facility in 2009.

“That doesn’t count the thousands of volunteer firefighters we train annually in the field through our Extension Service Bureau,” said Curtiss Marbury, Instructor Chief with the State Fire Academy. “We’re extremely busy around here and, as a matter of fact, we’re currently booking reservations for 2011 and 2012.”

The State Fire Academy Executive Director, Reggie Bell, has been involved in training efforts in 36 states. “I’ve seen all their training facilities and to be very honest, we have the best in the nation, right here in Mississippi.”

The Academy is a 90-acre disaster with train derailments, airliner crashes, and buildings on fire. It looks real, but it’s not. Each disaster situation is called a “prop” and is designed to allow emergency responders to experience real emergencies with outcomes controlled by highly trained instructors.

“Trent Lott visited the Academy one year and said it looks like a Hollywood movie set,” said Bell. “For example, we can create every kind of situation in our computer-controlled burn building. With the click of a mouse, we can add fire or smoke and just as quickly, take it away.”

Realistic props, dedicated personnel, and customized training are the things that attract clients to the Academy. The list includes Memphis International Airport, Fed-X, the Virgin Islands, and firefighters from across the country.

“We recently had a group here from Poland,” said Bell. “They came to the United States to see a large fire department, which was New York City, a rural fire department, and the best fire training facility in the country. They picked us.”

The Academy has developed curriculum in concert with the infrastructure to give clients the best possible training in a broad range of emergencies. “We are constantly adding to the facility to accommodate as many as we can, and we stay booked,” said Marbury. “Having the ability to pass along knowledge to others is the greatest gift in the world. This is a great place to work.”

A new training prop for the Academy is in the planning stage, and the idea came from off campus. “Illicia Boaler, with our office, and Ricky Davis, State Chief Deputy Fire Marshal, came up with the idea for creating “Leak City” at the Academy,” said Mark McCarver, Mississippi PSC Office of Pipeline Safety. “It’s a great idea and will impact industry personnel as well as emergency responders.”

The proposed prop will involve gas and liquid leak scenarios involving both pipeline and distribution systems.

“The beauty of Leak City will be the ability to train industry personnel and emergency responders together,” said McCarver. “It will be a great opportunity for operators and firefighters to get a better understanding of each other’s needs should a real incident occur.”

Marbury said that firefighters are expected to know how to handle every emergency situation regardless of the chemical, fuel, or gas that may be involved. “That’s not easy to do, and difficult to train for,” said Marbury. “To have the opportunity to train along side operators who are experts with their product will be a great addition to the Academy.”

According to McCarver, the Academy will need help to construct the new prop. That help will come from contributions of cash and materials. “We are just in the planning stage, but we’re open to ideas as well as funding sources to get this completed,” said McCarver. “It’s got to be a cooperative effort, but that’s the beauty of it. It’s a win/win for everyone involved, especially the people of Mississippi.”

Sidebar

When you drive into the State Fire Academy, you may think that you are entering a state park. Located just off Interstate 20 in Jackson, the pristine Academy setting is easily recognized from the road by the airplanes parked on a concrete pad. The planes are a part of a 90-acre training complex designed to provide emergency responders with realistic fire and rescue scenarios.

The Academy has provided customized emergency training since 1972 and continues to provide cutting edge technology training to emergency responders from municipal, volunteer, and industrial fire departments. The staff includes 29 full-time staff instructors and 93 associate instructors.

Training on campus is facilitated by the creation of a variety of emergency situations from house fires to airline crashes to train derailments. All of this is possible because of the high tech “props” or simulations that allow instructors to create situations of varying degrees of danger. The confined space prop is considered the best in the nation.

The State Fire Academy maintains a curriculum current to the needs of emergency responders and industrial clients. New props are being proposed, and the campus is adding four new classrooms.