A Gwinnett County high school has a new tool to help students go on to have a career in firefighting.
County and school administrators cut the ribbon Tuesday on a new four-story fire tower at Maxwell High School of Technology in Lawrenceville.
“Our students will be able to do everything here except live fires and live burns. We can have a fog machine to simulate the smoke, but there will be no heat,” says Principal Jeff Hall.
He tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish there are 40 students currently in the Fire and Emergency Services program at the vocational school. The two-year-old program has already sent a dozen former students to the Gwinnett Fire Department.
Hall calls it a direct pipeline to employment and he is hoping the new tower will encourage other students to try the program.
Sebastian Loera Cardona is a junior at Mountain View High School and travels to Maxwell for the program.
“This class is just awesome. It’s the best class I’ve ever had in my life,” he says.
The students will use the tower for drills including ladder training, search and rescues, and breathing apparatus training.
Gwinnett firefighters will also use the tower.
“It gives the firefighters in Gwinnett County a second facility that they can do training with hose advancement, search and rescue, ladder placement, and high-rise drills,” says Capt. Tommy Rutledge.
He says the school’s program and tower also offer a good recruitment tool for the department.
The tower’s construction was a partnership between Gwinnett County, which provided about $530,000 from 2009 SPLOST money, and Gwinnett County Public Schools, which funded the remaining $70,000.
Maxwell is believed to be only the second school in the country to have a fire tower for training on school grounds.