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(Photo: Fire Chief Randy Isfeld talks about the benefits of the new training tower, classroom facilities, truck bays and capacity for expansion at the new fire hall.)

By LeRae Haynes 

Williams Lake Fire Chief Randy Isfeld describes the new fire hall as ‘the right thing at the right time and place’ and says that the new facility has improved the face of the fire department in the community. 

He explained that, in designing the new hall, planning for the future was as important as improving the present. The new hall includes the capacity for expansion 20 years from now, if needed, and is also set up for on-site living quarters for fire fighters. 

For the 43 Fire Department personnel, comprised of three career and 40 paid on-call members, the new hall represents better training and practice facilities, increased classroom capacity and an extremely efficient ‘flow’ in fire response from start to finish. 

“This new hall gives us the chance to do hands-on practice and training for things like roof fires and upper-floor fires, including standard doors and windows, a flight of stairs and a patio door. Having standard operating procedure training like this will make sure that when our fighters respond to a fire, it will be second nature to them,” said Chief Isfeld. 

“We now have a training tower so that we can actually practice these procedures accurately. We can enter the building from the bottom and go up three flights of stairs. You don’t have to imagine the procedures---you actually do them,” he continued. “In the back area, which will be finished this spring, we will be set up to practice fighting dumpster and car fires. We’ll have a natural gas feed set up so that the instructors can control the flame for training.  

“Now it’s not so much pretend and imagination: it’s all real,” he said. 

“How do you know what it’s like to work in a building if you’ve never practiced? Our new training facility with the smoke machine lets fighters know what it’s really like: you actually hear, smell, taste, feel and see the fire,” he said. “If you’ve practiced, you can fight it better.”

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