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North Branford Fire Tower Construction On Time, On Budget

Construction of town’s first fire training tower is on budget and on schedule, Fire Chief William Seward III reports.

“A great amount of work has been done; the physical framework is 100 percent complete,” said Seward. “Barring any weather changes I would anticipate looking at completion in about another five weeks.”

Seward gave his update to the Town Council on Jan. 5.

Ground was broken to begin the project in the fall of 2015. The tower is located behind the Public Works facility off Route 22. The three-story pre-engineered steel fire training tower and burn building is being constructed with a $370,000 budget.

Seward and the Board of Fire Commissioners started fanning the flames of support for this facility about four years ago and pushed the need to the forefront in the past two years. In 2014, the Town Council first put aside $20,000 toward the project; followed by a decision in April 2015 to earmark another $350,000 from a $5 million town wide infrastructure bonding package.

Once completed, the training tower will allow North Branford Fire Dept. (NBFD) volunteers to finally train in town, rather than traveling to outside facilities. Training is required comply with National Fire Protection (NFPA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) training standards.

Having the facility in town can improve the community’s fire insurance rating (residential and commercial) issued by the Insurance Services Office (ISO). When ISO re-evaluated the town’s fire protection capabilities in 2014, North Branford was upgraded from a Class 4/8 to a Class 4/4Y rating; but lost points due to the lack of a formal training site. The town also lost points for lack of a better communications system and lack of fire hydrants.

Seward gave his Jan. 5 update to the Town Council together with a summary of fire, emergency and medical responses during the 2014-15 fiscal year. The summary shows responses increased by nearly seven percent in one year, with NFBD responding to a total of 1,941 incidents in an average time of 6:03 minutes. All told, NBFD’s 129 members volunteered approximately 86,471 hours during fiscal 2014-15 and those volunteer hours added up to a cost savings of at least $2.1 million to the town.