COLUMBUS, Ind. — Call it NexusPark or the former FairOaks Mall. But for three days, some Columbus firefighters were calling the facility “Disneyland for firefighters.”
Parts of the building at 2380 25th St. scheduled for demolition were turned over to 93 city firefighters for unique training purposes, Columbus Fire Department spokesman Capt. Mike Wilson said.
Most of the first day of training took place where a former Hallmark outlet and a jewelry outlet used to be, as well as in the back hallways, Wilson said.
One dark room was filled with non-toxic smoke for training firefighters on finding unconscious victims and pulling them quickly to safety.
Many of the training exercises were a race against the clock to train on getting an injured person to safety, Wilson said. In those cases, both the victim and rescuer stay on the floor, and the victim is pulled out through a special technique that was demonstrated by Capt. Josh Allman during the training.
In the past, Columbus firefighters have only had one- or two-story homes to be used for training purposes, firefighter Ben Noblitt said. But the city has some buildings with different opportunities for training, he said.
For example, the former mall provides different obstacles firefighters don’t face during residential firefighting, Wilson said. He cited reinforced doors and the unique floor-plan as examples.
Parts of Nexus Park were offered for training purposes because the former mall has an industrial-style of construction that many local firefighters has never encountered before, firefighter Dan Acree said.
“This is different building materials used in a different construction method,” Acree explained. “We don’t get to see this every day, so when we have the chance to have hands-on training in a facility like this, it’s very beneficial.”
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.
