Mayville Fire and Rescue looking to open regional training facility

MAYVILLE, N.D. — Mayville Fire Chief Richard Hart hopes a new venture in his department will benefit other fire departments, not only in North Dakota but also in Minnesota and South Dakota.

Mayville Fire and Rescue is trying to raise money to create a regional training facility to make it easier for firefighters around the eastern side of the state to get training, as the North Dakota State Fire School is usually held in Minot.

“We’re trying to save people — the taxpayers — money by allowing these members to not have to fork out for room, board and all this other stuff,” Hart said. “They can stay right on site. They can stay here for two or three days, whatever they want, and do all the training that they want at their pace.”

The fire department’s goal is to raise $6 million, which includes $3.1 million to outright purchase the department’s current building, which was formerly used by Titan Machinery; $1.9 million to construct a burn tower to be used for things like practicing firefighter bailouts and training with hoses; and $1 million for other necessary upgrades like new water lines and interior renovation.

Other funding from sources like the department’s existing budget, grants and state monies will be used to purchase a new ladder truck and construct additional space to be used for training, bunks and other potential future growth.

Hart said none of the money for the training facility will come from taxpayers.

“Most of us are homeowners in this town,” he said. “There are homeowners, business owners, teachers and stuff like that in this department, and we’re not trying to dig into the taxpayers any more than we already do with the taxes that we already have to pay.”

One of the goals of the training facility is to help train and hire new firefighters across the state, as Hart said there’s a national shortage of volunteer firefighters.

“North Dakota is about 95% volunteer, and South Dakota is a little over 90% volunteer,” he said. “I think one of the biggest issues that we face as firefighters or volunteer fire departments is that once we get people in the door, we can’t retain them because we can’t train them.”

Mayville State University is planning to partner with the fire department to create a fire science program, with the hope that students may become volunteer firefighters in town. Hart also said he hopes to get a Career and Technical Education program started at the local high school, with the help of the state, where students could get college credit and possibly be certified for certain firefighter skills.

He also said having a regional training facility would not only be a benefit to rural fire departments but also to residents of those departments’ service areas by helping to reduce their fire insurance premiums. The Insurance Services Office evaluates and rates fire departments based on their readiness and fire protection capability — some of which is based on the amount of training the firefighters have received — and those ratings are often used by insurance companies to help determine local fire protection premiums. The higher a fire department is rated, the lower the insurance premiums.

Jordan Rusche is the government reporter for the Grand Forks Herald.