Shipping containers are designed to be stacked on boats and trains. A couple of decades ago it was also noted the material and structure of the containers also made them ideal for police and fire training.

Employing new or used shipping containers for fire training applications cuts down on costs compared to training center buildings since the containers are replaceable and can be placed just about anywhere on a typical concrete pad. Therefore, designing and implementing a shipping container training facility is cheaper and simpler than designing a training facility with a traditional architectural design.

Such was the thinking when the Midwest City, Okla., Fire Department completed a new shipping container training facility to be shared with the local police department.

Midwest City Fire Department Trainee Chief Brian Brush has been involved in training for many years. Before building the container facility, he did some research.

“I toured many facilities. Bigger cities and departments can afford large training centers, but for smaller cities, the best use of money is these shipping containers,” he concluded. “Some of the older designs use used shipping containers and had the look. Our building, and many of the newer ones, are brand-new, fresh containers painted with windows and doors. It has a modern shipping container look to it and is all one color.”

Prior to the shipping container idea, the department did not have an actual training facility. Firefighters used local, vacant or donated buildings and parks to train: They only had a classroom and meeting room. The proposed new training facility would give the district a central location to train and also help keep trucks in service during training.

Discussion started in 2017 for a combined police and fire training center. Fire Chief Bert Norton stated that, just like any other city project, the department had to begin by figuring out what it wanted and laying the idea out with drawings and specifications – and then placing it out to bid. He and a group, including Brush, went to Arkansas and Missouri to look at different facilities and structures to determine what the department really wanted. “We figured out after looking at them that this is the way we wanted to go, with a shipping container building,” Norton said.

The department started with a rough estimate of costs and mock drawings. Using the facilities they had seen as guides, they ultimately decided to take some features away and add others. They evaluated what the departments needed out of the building, how many containers would be required and how to accommodate both police and fire training.

After the cost estimate was completed, they sat down with the city council and presented the project. It was decided that municipal bonds would be used to finance the build.

Once the department put the project out to bid, received the bids and identified their preference, it had to be taken back to the city council to accept and approve the yearlong contract for a 3-acre development to set up for the facility.

After the bid and municipal bonds were awarded, a proposal was sent out to citizens regarding the site that had been chosen. Unfortunately, residents rallied against the chosen site, causing a delay while the department searched for another location. Another meeting had to be held to increase the bond amount once the new location was chosen.

One helpful aspect of the design process, according to Brush, was that he was in direct contact with all of the key players. Because he knows firsthand how training works and how fire spreads within buildings, he was able to help design the facility to best meet the department’s training needs.

“Some of it was my experience and my training having been in different facilities and speaking with other training officers,” he explained. “The biggest thing is making sure it represents our community.”

One side of the training tower replicates an apartment building, which is common in Midwest City. “It’s important to make sure we are training in a facility and with a floorplan that represents what is actually in our community. The first story is like a single-family residence and the second story represents access to an apartment building.”

The facility has a floorplan of 3,500 total square feet. A total of 16 shipping containers in a combination of 20-foot and 40-foot containers were used. The top of the structure is equivalent to a six-story building.

Specific rules and parameters were followed in order to achieve an Insurance Services Office Class 1 insurance rating, such as placing it on so many acres, attaining a certain height and including live fire rooms on the first and second floors.

During the design phase, Brush said, it was important to take these must-haves along with the things they wanted to add and ensure all the mandates worked well together.

Throughout the structure, there are numbered doors to teach different fire scenarios within houses, apartments or other types of structures. There is an area on top where firefighters can practice cutting holes in the roof, and a standpipe is situated inside in order to get water inside the building.

One of the most valuable aspects of the design, according to Brush, is that the structure allows for rooms with live fire. These specific rooms have reinforced steel, insulation and ventilation openings to ensure the heat dissipates properly.

“The ability to do a live fire in structures is the most valuable experience to have,” he said. “There are many things we’ve done without that we’re now able to do. It’s a really exciting opportunity.”

The shipping container structure was built, painted and fabricated completely in Houston, Texas, by Lonestar Tactical Buildings. It was delivered to the city in May and assembled within a week. The entire project was completed in August, with the facility opening for training in early September.

“It’s going to have some huge advantages to us because we spend a lot of time in classes and sending people to classes,” Norton emphasized back in October. “And the way the container is structured and designed, it is laid out in a realistic aspect that will benefit the firemen. “We are now able to do our own live fire in our own facility and design our own training. We had an idea of what we thought this could do for us, but now we’ve been in it a couple of times and it’s exceeding expectations. And every time we use it, we learn more and continue to learn new ways to utilize the structure.”

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