Training tower built for Huntley firefighters

You probably haven't noticed the strangely shaped red steel structure plopped in the middle of a concrete pad at Coyne Station and Ernesti roads -- because you probably haven't been to the intersection, surrounded by fields and farmland.

But the fields soon will be replaced with hundreds of new homes, and the Huntley Fire Protection District -- which owns the structure -- will be poised to serve them.

The structure and the surrounding site is the fire district's new Ruth Family Firefighter Training Center, which firefighters will use to hone their skills; putting out real fires, attempting water rescues and maneuvering the bulkiest fire engines around obstacles.

"We've pretty much covered the gamut of what we're required to do," said Huntley Fire Capt. Ken Caudle, the district's director of training and safety.

When the training center is operational -- workers are putting on the finishing touches -- Huntley firefighters won't have to go as far as Champaign to train or fill out the mountain of paperwork required to burn down an uninhabited house.

"This alleviates all those headaches and heartburn," Caudle said. "It makes life a lot easier."

The five-acre site where the training center sits will one day house a fourth fire station to serve the growing population on Huntley's northwest side. The nearby Talamore subdivision, for example, will bring about 2,000 new homes.

The construction of a new station just east of the training center will depend on the housing market, which has slowed in Huntley as it has nationwide.

"That still may be a few years away, depending on how fast those homes come up," Huntley Fire Chief Jim Saletta said.

The fire district paid about $500,000 for the training center. The district saved on the cost of the land: The Ruth family sold part of the land to the district at a discounted price and donated the rest. The balance was paid with fees towns in the district collected from developers.

"No taxpayer dollars had to be used," Saletta said.

The centerpiece of the training center, the red steel structure, has three burn rooms where firefighters can set fires and put them out.

It also has doors that firefighters can force open, burglar bars that they can saw through, a prop roof they can cut into and a 40-foot tower from which they can rappel.

After Sunday's dedication ceremony, firefighters will get their first chance to train at the center Monday. The site will host training exercises four or five times every month, and other fire departments have expressed interest in using the site.