SPRING VALLEY
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The San Miguel Consolidated Fire Protection District and the Otay Water District plan to build a new center that will provide training for firefighters and water district employees.
The 3.5-acre training area on water district property in Spring Valley is expected to open in about two years. The two agencies have already agreed to a 60-year lease for a $10 annual payment.
“They only wanted to give a dollar for it, but we got them up to 10,” joked Otay Water District General Manager Mark Watton.
The serious reason for the cheap rent is that the water district needs the training San Miguel would be able to provide at the new facility.
“There's a lot of hazards associated with some of their field crews,” San Miguel Chief Augie Ghio said. “They need this type of training.”
Watton said his employees go to scattered places to receive training, such as in entering confined spaces, hazardous materials response, trench shoring and trench rescue. The new training facility would consolidate that training and make it available nearby.
Such agreements between fire agencies and water providers are rare, Watton said. In this case, however, the pieces fit well, said Armando Buelna, communications officer for the water district.
“We have the land, they can provide some of the resources, and we need the training,” he said.
Ghio said $700,000 from Indian gaming funds has covered the cost of architecture and provided seed money for construction. He said the fire district is negotiating partnerships with other agencies that he declined to name to secure about $3 million for construction.
Ghio said he hopes the training center will be operating in about two years. San Miguel and four other fire agencies will continue to operate the Heartland Training Facility in El Cajon, which has been open since 1973. When the Spring Valley training center is open, Ghio said he will seek money to improve the facility in El Cajon.
The new center would have at least four classrooms, compared with one in El Cajon, and more modern equipment. For example, the El Cajon training center has a tower to simulate fires in a multistory building. The Spring Valley facility also would have a tower, but it would have computer controls and be able to simulate visual impairment with smoke.
Ghio said he believes that there's a shortage of training available for firefighters in San Diego County and that the new facility could alleviate that.
“What we'd like to do is offer training to anyone who can't get it in their own jurisdiction,” he said.
Alan Schnepf is a freelance writer from San Diego.
