BC3’s smoky burn building gets a breather
A three-story Butler County Community College burn building used to train tristate firefighters to save lives and property is undergoing a $76,000 project to replace 1,150 interior haydite blocks degraded by temperatures ranging from 300 to 1,200 degrees.
The Butler County Fire Chiefs Association pledged $30,000 to the BC3 Education Foundation. The money will defray costs associated with repairing walls that define 13 rooms within a building where up to 30 firefighters can simultaneously navigate “with enough smoke, in pitch-black, zero visibility,” said Kevin Smith, a volunteer firefighter in Butler Township.
Smith is also an administrator in the Public Safety Training department within BC3’s noncredit Workforce Development division.
Fire departments and industrial fire brigades from Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Crawford, Erie, Lawrence, Venango, Washington or Westmoreland counties enhanced skills in the building in 2024, Smith said.
Straw and pallets placed within the building are ignited with a flare or a torch, he said. First responders shouldering 85 pounds of turnout gear then enter the inferno to practice searching for occupants or to weave a fire hose through the rooms to extinguish the blaze, Smith said.
Scenarios orchestrated within the 3,375-square-foot structure enable first responders “to learn how to operate in an environment they will encounter,” said Smith. “Our whole job is to protect lives and property. Practicing in a realistic setting prepares them for when it does happen.”
The burn building opened in 2022 as part of a 13-acre Public Safety Training Center on BC3’s main campus in Butler Township and, Smith said, is used to train firefighters year-round.
Scott Frederick is president of the Butler County Fire Chiefs Association, which represents 31 fire companies or departments and 600 firefighters.
“With its central location, (BC3’s burn building) is a tremendous resource to train and equip firefighters with the knowledge necessary to go into fires and save lives and property,” Frederick said.
“It is a critical component to ensuring service delivery of fire and rescue services to not only Butler County, but to the surrounding counties that utilize it as well.”
Funds contributed to repairing the burn building were raised through training events, said Frederick, who is also Butler Township’s director of emergency services.
“The fire chiefs stepped up in a big way,” said Brian Opitz, BC3’s executive director of operations who identified damaged haydite blocks to be replaced in the project with Smith, which will close the burn building for up to seven weeks.
“Haydite is made to take that heat, but it still deteriorates,” Opitz said. “It starts to crack from heat stress and crumble a bit. So we wanted to replace it before it might fall with people inside who are training.”
The structure is supported by vertical columns of concrete reinforced with rebar and steel and, like its ceilings and floors, are protected by fire brick and do not need to be repaired, Opitz said.
Employees of Troy Jay Construction, Slippery Rock, have begun to remove and replace what owner Troy Grossman estimates to be 30% of the building’s interior haydite blocks.
BC3 and its burn building are accredited by the State Fire Academy and the Office of the State Fire Commissioner as a testing site for firefighters pursuing up to 150 certifications, Smith said.
The structure also was used by 200 firefighters training in the Butler County Fire School in August, Smith said. BC3 instructs 40 open-enrollment firefighter courses annually.
Rooms within BC3’s burn building range in size from 10 feet by 10 feet to 20 feet by 12 feet, Smith said.
Bill Foley is coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College.
