Regional Responder Training Center discussed

MAT-SU— Two new roads will give responders a place off an urban street for exercises like hydrant training. Learn more of what’s planned for the Southcentral Regional Emergency Services Training Complex off Knik Goose Bay Road near Vine by attending a community meeting Monday from 6 p.m.-7 p.m. at station 6-2.

The training center is in the state’s second largest fire department, Wasilla Lakes Fire.

The next construction phase, a $1 million dollar project, is underway: the installation of a water line along Cruiser Dr., and two new roads going in, East & West Roads. The new roads will allow responders greater access to the 73.59-acre site. Among the training exercises near the new roads will be hydrant training, a driving obstacle course, a vehicle extrication training area, and a hazardous material training area.

“We don’t train with hazardous materials,” said project manager John Harris with Borough Public Works, who is also an on-call responder. Instead a hazardous material training session includes all the protocol necessary to respond, suiting up in special gear, analyzing what a simulated material might be and how to dispose of it if it were the material.

Very little smoke or air quality issues will be associated with the live fire training props used. In future phases of the project, training will offer props for flammable liquid and gas fires. All these props will use clean burning natural gas or propane as fuels. The fuel to be used in the training tower is straw and wooden pellets

The training tower will be moved farther east, deeper into the lot. The primary entrance to the station will remain off Knik Goose Bay Road not redirected onto the two new training roads. 

A 100 foot buffer of foliage surrounding the training center will help reduce sound and visibility of training for nearby neighborhood.

A proposed emergency alternate landing site for a medevac helicopter has been identified. This site is an option when the medevac helicopter is not able to safely land on the roadway at the scene of an auto accident or in an adjacent field for a medical incident.

Future phases of the center will include a new fire station.

The Borough is encouraging nearby residents to attend the meeting and learn more. A detour is on Cruiser Road until Sept. 24 to allow a contractor to install the water line. A traffic control team for the company knocked on doors of houses in Birch Harbor subdivision with flyers to notify residents of the detour onto Valley View from Hollywood Blvd.

WHERE: Station 6-2 is at mile seven off Knik Goose Bay Road.

WHEN: Monday Sept. 9, 6 pm to 7 pm, Mile 7 Knik Goose Bay Road.

For more information call Public Affairs Director Patty Sullivan at 745-9577 or

Photos by John Harris/MSB.