Rare Fire Safety Center is Hot Commodity

The popularity of Chippewa Valley Technical College’s new Fire Safety Center in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, is heating up. The building recently was the subject of a lengthy television news story by Eau Claire’s WEAU-TV. Ayres Associates architects (who recently joined the firm through the acquisition of Frisbie Architects) and site civil engineers provided design services for the facility.

In addition to TV coverage, the building also was showcased in October as part of the annual Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce/CVTC Business Community Breakfast. During the event students and staff demonstrated the advantages of hands-on learning using CVTC’s public safety and emergency services facilities. Dozens of local business people attended the event.

Ayres will feature the new facility in our upcoming winter issue of TRENDS magazine. You can receive the latest issue of TRENDS for free.

CVTC’s L.E. Phillips Fire Safety Center is used for emergency services training and as a site for businesses to conduct research and development on products requiring fire testing, such as fire extinguishers, doors, windows, and glass. The center, one of only a few certified test sites in the world, is used as a site for third party product certifications such as Underwriters Laboratories (UL) 711 certification, which is a standard set for fire extinguishers.

The fire test room is the highlight of the building, where firefighters test their skills and the performance of extinguishers to quench flames that reach toward the 30-foot-high ceiling with temperatures up to 2,000 degrees at their peak.

Disa Wahlstrand was the lead site civil engineer.

Photos and words cannot do the facility justice. Check out this video of the test room in action. And CVTC’s website offers more information about the Fire Safety Center.