Plano Fire-Rescue is looking into creating a training facility at Fire Station 1 in Plano.[/caption]

The Plano City Council at a May 9 preliminary meeting advised Fire Chief Sam Greif to continue with Plano Fire-Rescue’s proposal to build a fire training facility in Plano. If approved by council members, the project would require voter approval in a bond election next May.

The need for the facility arose in part due to the closing of Collin College’s fire training facility in McKinney in 2014. The facility is currently being rebuilt and is expected to open in a couple of years, Greif said. Plano Fire-Rescue needs certain levels of training, such as live fire drills, in order to maintain its ISO rating. The city has carried a Class 1 Public Protection Classification from the Insurance Services Office and was the first city in Texas to receive the Class 1 rating.

“Fire services have changed dramatically in the last three to four decades and so has the training needs. Subsequently, [Plano’s] needs have changed,” Greif said. “Response times are getting higher; we’re going in the wrong direction, quite frankly.”

The facility would enable Plano Fire-Rescue to participate in more frequent and realistic training, which would help the department keep its response times low as Plano continues to develop, Greif said. Plano Fire-Rescue saw a 10 percent increase in calls in 2015. The facility would also be open for other neighboring cities to use for a fee.

The proposed facility, which would be built at Fire Station 1 off K Avenue, is expected to be unlike any facility in Dallas or Collin counties and cost no more then $22 million, an estimate that is “worst case scenario,” according to Greif. The city would use the $5 million allocated toward the station’s planned renovations toward the project.

“I believe we are ready [for] our fire department [to] have their own facilities in order for them to be the best they can be and deliver services to our citizens,” Mayor Harry LaRosiliere said. “There’s a cost to that but that is an investment for our future that’s going to be here forever.”