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Avon residents concerned about proposed fire training facility

Avon residents concerned about proposed fire training facility

Jenny Dreasler | News 8 at 11

AVON, Ind. (WISH) — A new proposed fire training facility in Avon has some neighbors concerned.

News 8’s Jenny Dreasler spoke to people living nearby and the fire department to see what the plans entail.

According to fire officials, nothing is set in stone yet, but people who live near the area just north of Cedar Elementary School where the proposed facility will go are worried about the potential issues the training facility might cause for them.

Right now there aren’t even set project plans that officials with the Washington Township Avon Fire Department could show News 8. They say they are still working on getting the land purchase approved.

News 8 talked to a woman, Sharon Jones, who lives in the neighborhood just east of where the facility might go. She says she’s worried about the noise the facility might bring, contamination and the fact that it’s so close to a residential area.

“My objections is the noise level. You can’t tell me there’s not going to be sirens. You can’t tell me there’s not going to be noise over there. Why can’t they put it out there by Avon Town Hall? There are plenty of places out there on 36, plenty of places on 100 South,” said Jones.

“All the trainings that we will do will give us the hands-on specific trainings that we need to do to do our job and to function in order to serve our community better,” said Jerry Bessler with Washington Township Avon Fire Department.

Bessler says contamination wouldn’t be an issue as the facility is bound by strict state and federal laws and could only train with straw and clean wood. Firefighters would not be able to use accelerating chemicals to start fires and would only be using water to practice battling those blazes.

Bessler says right now they have to go out of town in order to train, so the new facility would keep fire support local in the event of an emergency.

He also says the school district is on board with the plans. Bessler encourages anyone with questions or concerns to reach out to the fire department.

Another public meeting on the issue has been planned for January 27.