Facility will enhance firefighter training Middlesex County officials are pursuing the construction of a building where firefighters can be trained to battle blazes inside strip malls and other structures that are common in Middlesex County. The Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders voted last week to authorize the bid process for the 7,200-square-foot building, which will be located at the Middlesex County Fire Academy in Sayreville. Officials anticipate the building will cost approximately $1.5 million for design and construction. The proposed concrete building would be the first of its kind in New Jersey because it would include a basement, allowing firefighters the chance to learn firsthand how to descend into a chimney-like situation to fight a fire, county officials said. Training for basement fires usually involves a simulated experience. "Literally hundreds of scenarios could be set up in this building to teach firefighters the best way to extinguish a fire fast and get people out safely," Freeholder Christopher Rafano, chairman of the county’s Law and Public Safety Committee, said in a press statement. "This building has been in the planning stages for more than a year so we could ultimately offer our firefighters a very broad range of conditions they could face in the real world." Rafano and county Fire Marshal Michael Gallagher formally presented the plans for the building to the freeholder board April 15. The meeting was attended by representatives of project architect ETC of Newark, and construction manager Gilbane Building Co., Lawrenceville. Construction could begin as early as next month, according to county officials, and should be completed in October. One part of the proposed building will resemble a strip mall; its other side will look like a warehouse with residential apartments on the second floor. Scenarios that can be taught include commercial kitchen fires, hazardous materials and incidents in a warehouse, a basement fire within a store in which fire extends upward via shafts, and fires in void spaces, such as those between drop ceilings and attics. The building has also been designed with roof cutout props for firefighters to practice cutting and where they can learn the advantages of proper ventilation. Doors and security gate props, which can be forced open and cut, can be used for learning how to access the fire or people trapped inside. Throughout the building, plans call for built-in props for firefighters to practice saving their colleagues trapped inside, and holes in the floors, roofs and walls so their colleagues can be taken to safety. "The plans for this building are all encompassing so that our professional and volunteer firefighters have the most far-reaching experience we can offer them," Rafano said.