Local residents will get their first chance Thursday to view the new Douglas County Fire Training Complex and see the fire department’s first 10 rookies graduate.

The graduation and open house is scheduled from 6-8 p.m. at the complex located on Wortham Road, just off Cedar Mountain Road near the sheriff’s office firing range.

“After the rookie graduation, the public can watch live burns on the four outside props and be able to tour the four-story training tower,” said Wes Tallon, county communications and community relations director. “Firefighters will be on hand to give tours and information of the new facility.”

In addition to the training tower, the fire training complex includes a two-story burn building, a confidence trailer, four live burn props, a classroom and other related facilities.

The complex was paid for with 2002 1-cent special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) funds.

Tallon said the new complex gives Douglas County firefighters the ability to receive live fire and other specialized training in controlled settings. Previously, county firefighters had to travel to Forsyth, Georgia to receive this training.

County officials are hopeful the new complex will also generate revenue by renting it to other metro Atlanta fire and rescue units which don’t have their own training facilities.

The rookie class graduating Thursday has completed Georgia Firefighter I and II requirements which include 240 hours of classroom and skills instruction, 16 hours of GEMA (Georgia Emergency Management Agency) vehicle extraction course and 40 hours of hazardous materials awareness and operations. All class members received passing scores on the written and skills tests. The skills tests involve live burning on the four exterior props and five live structural burns in the burns building.

The 10 graduates include Matthew Allen, Robert Baker, Jean Baca Balderas, Derek Cogland, William Damroze, Paul Holmes, Joann Kuerner, Shawn Prewett, Tracy Peringer and Jamal Wilson.

The individual components of the complex include:

• the four-story training tower which allows simulation of rescues from tall buildings, different window configurations, balconies, repelling rescues and various interior accesses. The tower layout allows the training staff to stage multiple interior wall changes for various types of rescues and firefighting challenges;

• the two-story burn building which allows live fire under controlled conditions so firefighters can experience various burn situations;

• the confidence trailer is a crawl-through facility that helps firefighters learn to tackle tight spaces while wearing turnout gear because access to fires and victims is not always open and easy;

• the four live burn props include a dumpster, an automobile, a liquid petroleum (LP) gas tank and a flammable liquid pit;

• and classrooms, roof climbing facility, restrooms and showers and other support facilities.