CHERRY HILL, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — Cherry Hill’s fire department is getting $2 million from the state to build a new fire training facility.
The building will go up behind the fire station on Marlkress Road. “It’s going to be an actual burn building structure for live burn fire training scenarios,” said Cherry Hill Fire Chief Wade Houlihan. Houlihan stressed that practice makes perfect, because there’s no time to waste when firefighters arrive on scene.
“Constant training, constant learning, constant mentoring enables the fire fighter to be able to respond to these events and operate safely,” he said.
As Houlihan explained, the new facility will be the training ground for firefighters to learn how to deal with solar panels, lithium batteries and other modern technologies found at homes and businesses.
“It requires us to stay up on all of the changes in everything we respond to. It’s just a task that we have to maintain proficiency with and learn and almost become technicians sometimes more than being a firefighter,” he said.
It will be more of a regional training center. Firefighters from neighboring towns will be invited to train at the burn building to ensure they are also prepared for anything.
Building design is still being finalized and the construction schedule should come together in the next several months.