A new live training facility will be built in Bangor after firefighters used the current building to combat thousands of fires during its 38 years.
The $703,000 facility will be installed by May 2026 and constructed out of cargo shipping containers, which means it can be reconfigured to present new challenges during trainings, Bangor Fire Assistant Chief Greg Hodge said.
The department received a $679,000 grant from the Maine Fire Protection Services Commission, which the Bangor City Council accepted at a May 28 meeting. The fire department is contributing $24,000 to add a third story to the design, Hodge said.
The new facility will benefit not just the Bangor Fire Department, but surrounding departments as well. It will be open to more than 100 departments across Maine to conduct live training exercises.
The new live training building will be constructed around the same time as a $2.4 million public safety building, which voters passed a bond for in 2024. That building will have space to store fire trucks and engines as well as equipment. It will also provide indoor space for training and equipment maintenance.
Both buildings will go on city property off Odlin Road, near the airport, where the current live training facility was built in 1986.
Bangor Fire Department’s new three-story live training facility will be built out of shipping containers, which allows the configuration to change for new challenges. Courtesy of Forge Fire & Company
Bangor Fire Assistant Chief Greg Hodge, left, and Capt. Chad Bean, right, inside the department’s current live training facility. Credit: Marie Weidmayer / BDN
An aerial view of the current live training facility (left) for the Bangor Fire Department. A new, state-of-the-art facility will be built by May 2026. Credit: Marie Weidmayer / BDN
The new live training facility will create better training opportunities for firefighters and give them six rooms where live fire can be used instead of just one, Hodge said.
It will be built to standards from the National Fire Protection Association. Part of the association’s goals are to have facilities that meet standards within an hour drive for at least 90 percent of the state’s firefighters.
“This will be the top spot for really all of northern Maine to come to,” Hodge said. “Of course it’s in our city and so we’re going to see the most benefit, but everybody’s going to see it.”
The containers mean that they can take out a damaged or overused section and replace it instead of doing major construction.
Training at the current facility can get stagnant because only one room in the building is set up for actual fire, which means firefighters already know where they’ll find the blaze and what search patterns to use, Hodge said. There’s multiple burn rooms in the new facility so firefighters won’t immediately know where to go, he said.
Ground ladders can only be used on one side of the current building but the new facility will have 360-degree access. The plan is to build a road around the building.
“It’s just a huge, huge step forward kind of into the new modern world,” Hodge said.