On Monday, crews began working clearing land for the Fort Myers Fire Department for their new fire training field. The department has been without one for two years now.
The department's former site, built in 1972, was located on Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard and was sold to Suncoast Beverage, which allotted funds to build a new training center.
"We struggled early on because we trained in this one particular geographical location in the city, and we're focusing so much on scouring that particular area," said Chief Tracy McMillion.
Eventually finding one right in their backyard, fire staff selected city-owned property next to their current Fire Station 16, located at Veronica Shoemaker and Valerie House Way.
"Once we started looking into it, it was just the perfect spot there [it's in the] center of the city. All our stations can actually still be in service while they come and train, which you don't really get that opportunity," McMillion said.
The project will cost $2.8 million and will feature a single-family home, a four-story tower, and a commercial simulation; there will also be a Conex shipping container structure for real fire “live” fire training, aimed to give advanced training for crews for the next 50 years.
"This is essentially just a concrete structure that we can go into flow water, we can search, we can break things, bang things up, and we don't have to worry about damage in the actual building itself," said Capt. Todd Burik.
The goal is to keep the city of Fort Myers as safe as possible.
"To be able to have something like this, it's just going to be able to enhance our abilities, to keep our community safe, to be able to actually make sure we're doing what we need to do the best that we can," McMillion said.
McMillion told NBC2 that this project will be completed and ready to go for firefighters in six months.