Natchez Fire Department to get new training facility

May 20--NATCHEZ -- The Natchez Fire Department hopes to turn steel shipping containers into better insurance rates for local residents, and will spend $90,000 to do it.

Natchez Fire Chief Aaron Wesley said the department plans to buy approximately 30 8-foot by 40-foot steel shipping containers in order to construct a reusable training facility for its firefighters.

"You stack them up," Wesley said. "They don't burn, so you can put heat in them. You go into different rooms, learn to extinguish different types of fires. You can simulate smoke or simulate rescuing someone. There are a number of things it can be used for."

The fire department will install the containers at its existing training ground on Firefighter Drive, which is near Aldrich Street and is in the city limits.

Each container will cost approximately $3,000 to purchase and install, Wesley said, but it would be well worth it, especially because the facility may improve the department's effectiveness rating with the Mississippi Rating Bureau.

The bureau creates fire safety ratings for different regions of the state based on how close they are to a fire station and how effective that station is at protecting the area from fires.

Lower ratings indicate better fire protection, Wesley said.

"There are things to meet the requirements, such as trucks, training and inspections, that will keep the rate down," he said. "These containers using for training purposes for burning buildings, it can help with our rate."

The City of Natchez is rated at level 5 of 10, but some areas of Adams County are too far away to receive any rating at all. This raises property insurance rates, Wesley said, because areas farther away from stations are at much greater risk of fire-related loss.

Wesley said the fire department isn't able to shell out the $90,000 in one lump sum, but received permission at Tuesday's Natchez Board of Aldermen meeting to begin the process of taking out a loan to be paid back monthly.

The monthly payments shouldn't be a problem, Wesley said, because the $400,000 fire truck the department purchased in 2011 will be paid off in September 2016.

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