Calif. Firefighters Convert Building Into Training Facility

Two new Vallejo firefighter recruits cut the security bars on the window as smoke is seen seeping out of a baby's room.

One then jumps into the room, trying to locate the baby while the other waits outside the window.

He finds the infant, and ends the day heroically.

Although the baby was a toy and the smoke was not from a fire, the scenario was realistic.

The simulation was played out in a 70-year-old abandoned Mare Island building that has been converted into an all-inclusive training ground by Vallejo firefighters.

In addition to the building section simulating a home with a master bedroom and living room, complete with furniture, the building includes a "mom and pop" store. Meanwhile, in the back, there is a wrecked car which can be used to practice extrication, near a low roof that has been set up to practice ventilation.

The next step, firefighters said, is to simulate a drug lab for hazardous material training purposes.

"It's nice to have (this building)," Vallejo Fire Battalion Chief Dave Urrutia said. "A lot of times it takes time to prep (a training ground), but here we can have everything ready to use."

Urrutia is now using the building to train the new 10 firefighter recruits, until their graduation in June.

The city-owned Building 571 in north Mare Island has been vacant for a while, and when Urrutia discovered it a few months ago, he knew he had found a hidden gem.

"I asked the city if we could use it, and they said sure," he said.

Currently the city has no plans for the building, said Vallejo Economic Development Department Director Ursula Luna-Reynosa.

On April 17, City Manager Dan Keen recommended using $500,000 of the estimated $9.5 million sales tax revenue this year to pay to demolish 10 vacant structures in north Mare Island.

However, Luna-Reynosa was unsure if Building 571 is one of the 10.

"I'm going to take advantage of it until they decided to demolish it," Urrutia said. "It keeps out of the elements, and we could never do everything at once before."

The 1942-vintage building had warehoused ship construction material until the navy shipbuilding base was closed in 1996, said Ken Zadwick, president and co-founder of the Mare Island Historic Park Foundation.

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