A fire-training idea struck sparks at Monday evening’s Stowe Select Board meeting.
A small group of Stowe Fire Department volunteers has been honing an idea for a new fire department training center where the Civilian Conservation Corps camp is located on Moscow Road.
The fire department has used that site half a dozen times a year as a training location, primarily to practice extricating people from wrecked vehicles, says Scott Reeves, a captain in the fire department. Occasional practice vehicle fires are held there, too. The camp building is in disrepair.
Reeves cited a 2016 study that recommended the Stowe Fire Department and Stowe Emergency Medical Services address what he called “the gap in training” — some firefighters on the department have more than a decade of experience fighting fires, while new members don’t. They wind up being left out.