Police Jury bringing first fire training center to Vermilion Parish

Training is one of the most critical chapters in the story of a firefighter’s career.
In the near future, firefighters across the 15 departments in Vermilion Parish will have access to a local three-story facility to further that training.
A fire training building is currently being constructed for the Vermilion Parish Police Jury. Located on West Port Street in Abbeville, the building with allow firefighters throughout Vermilion Parish to train for structure fires in a controlled environment.
Doris Langlinais, the fire coordinator for the police jury, said this is an essential step for the parish. Langlinais also serves as the chief of the 7th Ward Volunteer Fire Department and is a member of the Abbeville Fire Department.
“This will be the first opportunity to get some hands-on training at a facility in the parish,” Langlinais said.
Featuring a smoke room, prop room, and a three-story tower, this will be a first-of-its-kind opportunity for firefighters to apply their classroom knowledge to real-world scenarios. In addition, local firefighters would have to leave the parish to conduct similar training exercises.
“You had to go out of the parish,” Langlinais said. “You had to go either to the state training facility in Baton Rouge or another parish’s training center.”
With so many volunteer firefighters in the parish, this facility will maximize training time by saving time on travel.
“Vermilion Parish is majority volunteer firefighters,” Langlinais said. “This will allow them to make evening and weekend training that will meet their schedule with their jobs and their families.
“They won’t have to leave town or take off work to go to training.”
Use of the building by the fifteen fire departments that provide emergency services within the parish will also benefit property insurance rates.
“It will help our fire rating and provide a place for more in-depth training for all parish departments,” Abbeville Fire Chief Jude Mire said. “We will be able to have more hands-on training with surrounding departments.”
Glenn Lege Construction, Inc. is currently building the foundation. Parish Administrator Keith Roy said he is working with the Louisiana National Guard to have some of its members construct the three-story facility at no cost to the parish. The parish would purchase materials.
“It’s something I utilized when I worked for the federal government,” Roy said. “It provides them free training.”
Roy said access to the meeting room and facilities at the LSU AgCenter extension office next door cuts down on space and, therefore, the cost of the fire training building.
“If we put it somewhere else,” Roy said, “we must add a training room and restrooms.
“Right there, you are saving on cost.”
Once completed, the training building will return value to the parish often.
“This allows us to train, pre-disaster, at a facility that’s made for training,” Langlinais said. “Firefighters will be able to hone their skills and judge themselves while carrying out emergencies in a training scenario. Everyone is looking forward to it. It’s a long time coming.
“This is a huge advancement.”