With funding from the HACC Foundation, HACC's Senator John J. Shumaker Public Safety Center has purchased a 1984 fire engine from Penbrook Fire Company for $12,000.
A new fire engine would cost the college $300,000, and its purchase allowed Penbrook Fire Company to purchase a new fire engine to serve its community.
"We've had fire engines for 11 years. They are used almost every weekend to train local and volunteer and career fire fighters," said Jerry Ozog, director of Fire Science and EMS Training at HACC's Senator John J. Shumaker Public Safety Center.
"Although we're getting 20-year-old technology, it allows us to replace a 1971 model in our fleet of three fire engines used for training here. And it's nice to help out a local fire company so that they can enhance their equipment for the community," said Ozog.
HACC is one of the premier providers of on- and off-site police, fire and emergency response training.
Its state-of-the-art, 11-acre training complex just north of HACC's Wildwood Campus includes a structural burn building, smoke chamber, mid-rise drill tower and driving pad, as well as a rubble pile and numerous other confined space, hazardous materials and structural collapse training props.
Fire engines are used in an engine company operations class to teach how to advance hose lines into a burning building. There are simulations and evolutions of real fire fighting situations.
Thirteen hundred students come every year to train at HACC's Public Safety Center. HACC also trains about 6,000 fire fighters annually throughout south central Pennsylvania at local fire departments.
The Center combines a wide variety of training and certification programs for police, fire, healthcare and emergency-service personnel, as well as response and safety training for private industry and other organizations.
In addition to on-site training, the Center delivers customized educational and training programs to area police forces, fire companies and ambulance crews for most course offerings at off-site locations.
The HACC Foundation is a non-profit educational trust established in 1985 by visionary leaders who saw the value of preparing for future years, to raise private and corporate revenues in support of Harrisburg Area Community College.
Information about HACC's Public Safety programs can be obtained by accessing the Website below.