East Manatee Fire Rescue unveils new training tower

East County resident Bob Mikulski leaned through a window opening and watched as East Manatee Fire Rescue firefighter Derek Parker repelled down a concrete training tower and began manipulating the ropes.

In moments, Parker had grabbed the mannequin dangling from the fire district’s newly completed training tower, flipped back around and began a return to safety.

Mikulski, the district’s training officer, smiled.

“We can do a lot more hands- on training now,” he said. “This (tower) is ours. We can use it 24/7, day or night.”

East Manatee Fire Rescue celebrated the official opening of its new five-level, training tower, located south of the district’s administrative building at 3200 Lakewood Ranch Blvd., Lakewood Ranch, with a Jan. 27 dedication ceremony.

The tower will be named the Glenn A. Davis Training Tower in honor of longtime firefighter and East Manatee Fire

Rescue District Commissioner Glenn Davis.

Construction of the tower cost $850,000.

Fire Chief Lee Whitehurst said East Manatee has been using the Manatee Technical College Fire Academy’s fire tower for training exercises, but with daily student training and access limitations, district officials felt the tower was worth the investment.

It provides an opportunity for diverse training evolutions, such as fire suppression, hazardous material, technical rescue and/or heavy or special rescue. The department also can perform exercises at night when MTC’s facility is closed.

“We are so excited,” Mikulski said. “Everybody’s been looking forward to this day for years.”

Whitehurst said the tower has become especially important now that the district has six- and seven-story condos and other buildings within its borders. Rescue crews need practice for such scenarios, both in setting ladders and buckets to varying types of windows and openings, as well as hauling hoses up multiple flights of stairs with water from sprinklers gushing down stairwells.

“When you go up seven floors, it’s manpower,” Whitehurst said. “It’s something you have to practice, and now we have a building that simulates construction within our district.”

The new training tower re-creates high-rise scenarios but also allows the district to set up scenarios resembling one- and two-story homes. Its focus is practicing with hoses and conducting search and rescue.

Whitehurst said the tower will not be used for training exercises involving fire. Such a tower, which is constructed differently to withstand the wear and tear of intense heat, may be a future district project, but it is not in the district’s five-year plan. For now, the district will continue using MTC’s fire tower for fire-related training.