Fayetteville Tech plans to build swift water training facility

Emergency management officials have had to rely on out-of-state help, but that could change in the next year or two. Fayetteville Technical Community College wants to build an 88,000-gallon swift water training center to teach local rescue teams how to save lives in fast-moving floodwaters.

"At every turn, some family, some family member, is going to be affected by this," Fayetteville Tech President Larry Keen said Monday. "Sometimes, when that water gets high, as you well know, you're talking about rooftops, you're talking about going into homes, you're talking about vehicles."

The $3.5 million facility will be part of a regional fire and rescue center now under construction at a Cumberland County industrial park.

It's modeled after a swift water training facility in Texas, but Keen said Fayetteville Tech's will be larger and will allow for a variety of training scenarios in daytime and nighttime conditions.

"In the past, we've gone to the Cape Fear River [to train]," said Freddie Johnson, president of the Cumberland County Fire Chiefs Association. "I can tell you, you're swimming with dead catfish [and] trash, and it's just not safe."

"We wanted to build something that was newer and more advanced and really gave us the opportunity to honor and train the people that we work with on a continual basis," he said.