For many years the Plymouth Fire Department and their volunteers have worked seeking donations and fundraising to purchase a training town for the department.
The dream of former Fire Chief Wayne Smith became a reality several months ago but in celebration of Fire Prevention Week, a special open house and dedication ceremony was held on Saturday.
Plymouth Fire Chief Rod Miller said, “Wayne, I think a lot of the drive and recognition, not to say it was all you but a lot of it was you for the vision that we have as reality today.” The fire training tour facility was named the Wayne Smith Training Center.
During Smith’s comments he said, “Back in the 70’s when the State of Indiana started the training program of firefighter 1 & 2, they grandfathered anyone who sent the paperwork in and grandfathered the department with certified firefighter 1 & 2.” He continued, “We were the first fire department in the State of Indiana that every firefighter on the department got certified based on training.” Although Smith is no longer involved with the firefighting, he said, “That’s a young person’s job.”
Mayor Senter cut the ribbon on the facility and thanked the volunteers saying, “Your job does not go unnoticed.” He also thanked the former chiefs who had the vision and Art Jacobs for his 8 years of work on the project.
Fire Chief Rod Miller noted he’s the fifth fire chief to have this vision: John Brown, Wayne Smith, George Cook and Andy Metskar all had the vision but now it’s a reality. Miller said with the contractual agreements with Center and West Township along with the City of Plymouth they were able to come up with $200,000
During the Open House firefighters offered tours of the training tower and practiced drills like repelling from the 3 story tower.
