Local volunteer fire departments could all get a boost from a training center being built by the Richardsville Volunteer Fire Department.

Plans for the training center were unveiled Tuesday in a groundbreaking ceremony at Richardsville VFD Station 2 on Mt. Olivet Girkin Road, and the department’s fire chief said the $400,000 project will benefit his fast-growing department, as well as others.

“This facility will allow us to better train our firefighters, and it should have a positive impact on our ISO (Insurance Services Office) rating,” said Brian Lee, who pointed out that the training center will be the first of its kind for volunteer fire departments in Warren County.

Lee said $56,000 of the cost is covered by a Kentucky Fire Commission grant that will pay for a ventilation prop that simulates different types of roofs that can be encountered by firefighters.

A stipulation of the fire commission grant is that the equipment purchased must be accessible by other fire departments, so the county’s eight other VFDs, as well as fire departments from neighboring counties, will be able to use the training center, Lee said.

“That facility will be open to any department, especially the ones in our county,” said Lee, who has been with the Richardsville VFD since 1993.

In addition to the ventilation prop, the training center will have a two-story steel structure that can be configured to mimic either a single-family home or an apartment building.

“We’ll be able to have a facility that will actually be similar to the fires we’re responding to,” Lee said. “It will have a tremendous positive impact.”

The total project will include upgrades to the Station 2 building and improvements to the parking lot.

“Our board of directors approved funding the project through our fire dues,” Lee said. “It’s a great thing for our department.”

Such upgrades are needed, Lee points out, for a department that is already the county’s largest and continuing to grow. The Richardsville VFD now has six stations and 41 firefighters. They responded to more than 1,100 fire, medical and technical rescue calls last year, and that number has more than doubled in the past decade.

Pat Stewart, chairman of the Richardsville VFD board of directors, calls the training center “a good investment” that he believes will benefit the department’s firefighters and residents in the Richardsville area.

“Brian and some other firefighters approached the board about doing a training center,” Stewart said. “I’m excited that we’re going to be able to do it.

“We depend on these volunteer firefighters to come to our aid. I wanted something to benefit the firefighters. These people don’t get paid. They get up in the middle of the night and respond to emergencies.”

Stewart said the training center and the improvements to Station 2 will be money well-spent.

“This will enhance the skill level of our first responders,” he said. “I’m thankful for the community support in paying dues. That’s critical for all county fire departments.”

Lee believes the investment made by the board of directors should pay off for those dues-paying residents in the form of lower homeowner’s insurance premiums. He explained that the Richardsville VFD now has an ISO rating of five on a scale of 1 to 10, with one being the best.

Past upgrades in facilities and equipment have improved the rating, and Lee thinks another improvement could come after the training center is built.

“We made a two-point gain from a seven to a five,” he said. “Anytime you’re able to make a gain in your rating, there is a savings for homeowners.”

Lee expects the ventilation prop to be delivered in the next couple of weeks and the rest of the project to be completed by next spring.

The grant for the ventilation prop comes shortly after Lee’s department received a $139,048 federal grant to purchase 24 self-contained breathing apparatus units already being used.