OCEANSIDE — After years of discussions and planning, Oceanside fire recruits will soon begin using a newly-erected fire training tower, paid for with Measure X funds to provide a dedicated space for myriad live fire scenarios.

The new, four-story facility built at 110 Jones Road on the Oceanside Fire Department’s training grounds is a live-controlled structure designed to provide conditions simulating real situations facing firefighters — burning rooms, smoke-filled halls and stairways, and bailout windows to practice repelling.

Recruits will practice forcing entry, working in dark and confined places, using breathing apparatus and fighting live fires. The training tower has three rooms that are “built to burn,” Battalion Chief Scott Stein told The Coast News.

“These help us simulate fire conditions,” said Stein, who oversees the fire training division.

While the tower has rooms designed to burn, the entire building is also designed to allow water to flow in and out. The structure uses a pressurized standpipe system, typically built in tall buildings with several floors to which fire hoses can be connected.

Rather than firefighters carrying one long hose connected to a fire hydrant up multiple floors, the hose attaches at the bottom to the vertical pipe that pumps water up several stories for firefighters to access on the same floor where a fire is located.

The tower also has a rooftop prop area to acquaint new firefighters with how to work on roofs. The rooftop includes rope rescue anchors and a place for recruits to train how to breach a roof.

“The roof prop allows us to operate off of a roof, which has its own inherent set of challenges,” Stein said. “It gives it an element of seriousness being 30 to 40 feet up.”

Replacing a one-story building on the training grounds, the tower helps teach recruits how to deal with fires in mid-to-high-rise buildings, similar to new developments that have popped up in the downtown area over the last few years.

“We’ve never had the amount of mid-rise or high-rise buildings prior to the infrastructure we have now,” Stein said. “Oceanside is growing and evolving, so the department needs to grow and evolve with it.”

Before the training tower, fire recruits practiced downtown buildings. While the department still plans to train in these buildings to gain a better sense of how they work, the new training tower allows recruits to learn maneuvers like hose deployment and other basics first, thus giving them more time to spend learning the ins and outs of the actual buildings when they’re ready.

The new fire training tower, made of concrete and steel, was built with the help of Measure X, a half-cent sales tax initiative passed in 2018 to enhance public safety in the city.

“This was undoable without Measure X,” Stein said. “We’re grateful to the citizens.”

A few weeks ago, the tower was dedicated to former OFD Training Officer Everett Stephens, who became one of Oceanside’s first full-time firefighters around 1940.

Stephens served with the city for nearly 30 years and was a well-known and beloved firefighter who took the training aspect seriously after experiencing historical fires in the city, like the St. Malo Lumberyard fire in the early 1960s.

“(Stephens) witnessed firsthand the price of our profession,” Stein said. “As a result, it colored the seriousness of how we take training.”

The newest recruits will soon be the first academy class to test the training tower.

Stein, who said he feels lucky he gets to see the new training tower in action before he retires at the end of the year, noted that many of his predecessors who led discussions about the need for a building didn’t have the same chance. To honor their contributions, Stein invited many to permanently leave their handprints inside the tower walls when the concrete was poured.

The tower also honors the roles of Oceanside Associate Engineer Kymberly Corbin and construction contractor Michael Hoch of Reed Family Enterprises, Inc by naming fake streets after them as a fake location for the tower.

“Typically props like this are given a fake address so when we practice scenarios, recruits can report on the address — Kymberly Court and Michael Street,” Stein said.

The city’s Art Commission is currently working on plans to paint a mural next to the large “OFD Est. 1888” emblem on the side of the tower.

In addition to the new training tower, the fire department also recently broke ground on its new Fire Station 1 building that is set to replace the current, nearly 100-year-old building designed by famous architect Irving Gill. The new station will house larger apparatus and equipment in a building designed to pay homage to Gill’s style.

After former Chief Rick Robinson retired last month, the fire department also recently welcomed Fire Chief David Parsons to his new role. Parsons has served with OFD for over two decades.

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