Firefighters cut the ribbon on The Fire Academy of Kentucky

GREENVILLE, Ky. (WEHT) — Firefighters call Tuesday a great day for Muhlenberg County and for the Commonwealth as the ribbon is cut on the 8-million-dollar Fire Academy of Kentucky.

It is a facility where Eyewitness News is told everyone in Kentucky will benefit , and it’s located in Muhlenberg County.

After nearly two years, 16,000-square-foot training facility for the Bluegrass State’s newest firefighters.

“We really just want to say thank the people who even thought about building a facility like this,” recruit Mason Miller says. “We didn’t ever dream of coming to somewhere like this.”

The facility comes as a relief for smaller agencies, and training director — Pat Thompson — says it’s a great feeling this construction is done.

“They learn everything from how to properly put gear on, to successfully weather SCBA and personal protective equipment — how to fight a structure fire, how to respond to a vehicle accident, how to do some rope rescue — techniques like that,” Thompson says. “How to respond to a hazmat. How to respond to a vehicle accident. All those things they get over the 13 weeks.”

“It also allows us to do survival and rescue,” another recruit says. We have many props outside that we use to training. This pad is utilized in so many ways. We can do a lot more live fire burns in a lot safer manner.”

Moving forward — construction continues as a drill tower and dormitory will be built.

At the moment, these latest recruits are housed at the nearby Wendell H. Ford Regional Training Center.

The new class of recruits will graduate on May 17.

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