New $9.3 million hub for firefighter training breaks ground at Harper College

In a project more than two decades in the making, Harper College in Palatine finally has broken ground on a building that will be a hub for training firefighters young and old in the Northwest suburbs and beyond.

The $9.3 million, 9,040-square-foot Emergency Services Training Center will educate new and aspiring firefighters, and offer professional development and advanced certifications to current firefighters in the region. A groundbreaking was held on the northwest side of the community college’s campus last week.

Fire chiefs and training officers from local departments have long been clamoring for a training facility closer to home. New recruits typically enter the fire academies in Glenview and Romeoville, and sometimes downstate. At the same time, few departments have fire towers of their own to conduct regular training.

Local fire officials, clad in uniforms, renewed their push at a Harper board meeting nearly two years ago, convincing the elected officials and college President Avis Proctor to ignite planning efforts.

“In the very near future, career first responders in our towns and villages will not undertake a long drive south or west to maintain and build their skills,” Proctor said.

The proposed four-story tower will have various hands-on, real-world simulations to prepare firefighters for what they might face in the field. Each floor will be a different setting and experience: a single-family home, apartment building, high-rise office, and an open layout space with props and obstacles.

It will be a class B training environment, with theater smoke and natural gas burners used to simulate fire, whereas class A employs the use of light combustibles, real smoke and fire.

Palatine Fire Chief Patrick Gratzianna, an alumnus of Harper’s fire science technology program, said the training facility will be a “destination” to educate first responders in the suburbs.

“Whether fighting fires, performing rescues or responding to disasters, the training they will receive here will directly impact the safety of all of our communities,” Gratzianna said.

Norm Bemis, coordinator of the school’s fire science technology and emergency and disaster management program, predicts the tower and a neighboring classroom building will be busy. Among the anticipated users:

• New recruits from fire departments working on entry-level basic operations certification;

• High school graduates pursuing associate degrees in fire science technology, and current firefighters who want to start or finish a degree;

• More experienced firefighters trying to attain higher ranks as lieutenant, captain, battalion chief and deputy chief;

• On-shift firefighters from surrounding departments conducting training exercises.

“Having that live fire environment is so important to be able to try to train in that,” said Bemis, who spent 25 years with the Palatine Fire Department and retired as division chief of training last fall. “So they’re going to be able to do that here on campus.”

The bulk of the project is being funded by Harper’s operations and maintenance fund. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin also secured a $1 million federal grant a year ago — $540,000 will go toward construction and the rest for technology, equipment and training programs.

The Mount Prospect Fire Department, which recently absorbed the Elk Grove Rural Fire Protection District, donated the old fire district’s distinct yellow engine to the Harper program. The Hoffman Estates Fire Department donated hose, and Paramedic Services of Illinois donated gear.

Construction is anticipated to be done by the end of the year, with the first classes beginning in spring 2026.