Rumpke hosts firefighter training event

Cincinnati-based Rumpke Waste & Recycling plans to demolish its existing recycling center in Columbus, Ohio, to make way for a new material recovery facility (MRF) in the city. Prior to demolishing the old facility, Rumpke says it wanted to put the old structures to use by making them available for firefighter training.

Randy Broadright, area safety manager at Rumpke, says the Columbus Fire Department’s building acquisition specialist had approached Rumpke about using its Columbus facility for a training event.

“He had received notice of our intent to demolish a large warehouse and inquired about a training opportunity,” Broadright says. “As the structure was going to be demolished, we saw a perfect opportunity to provide a real-life training location for the fire department and give the building one last beneficial use before it saw the wrecking ball.”

Rumpke partnered with the Columbus Fire Department to host a “Save Our Own” training event for more than 250 Columbus firefighters, which took place over seven days in late October. Broadright says the training focused on teaching firefighters how to rescue fellow firefighters. He says Rumpke’s facility provided firefighters with a large warehouse space, two stories of offices and a large parking lot for vehicles to use during the training event.

He says, “What made Rumpke’s facility so valuable was the fire department could fill the offices with nontoxic smoke and create a very real scenario of having to search for and rescue a fellow firefighter from that smoke-filled maze of offices and doorways filled with desks, chairs and file cabinets. Imagine trying to replicate that in the classroom. We had a perfect place to train, and we are glad Columbus Fire reached out to us.

He continues, “The building was concrete with a unique, formed concrete roof, ideal for spraying water inside. Of special interest was the number of steel and wooden office doors and slatted metal dock doors, which the firefighters could force open or cut to practice gaining entry. The dock doors are apparently not that common in the Columbus area, according to a fire department trainer, and a great opportunity for the firefighters to use their tools to practice gaining entry on the real thing.”

Broadright adds that Rumpke’s engineering, operations, public relations and safety departments helped to plan and execute the training event alongside the Columbus Fire Department.

Rumpke is prepping its Columbus warehouse for demolish this month. Elford Inc. of Columbus is serving as general contractor for the facility’s demolition.

Rumpke will continue to partner with the local fire department as it constructs its new MRF to ensure safe operations. Broadright says the company plans to invite firefighters to walk through the new MRF once it’s constructed to familiarize them with the layout, processes, storage area, access routes and other considerations for the site.

“Safety and responsibility to the communities we serve is part of the Rumpke Waste & Recycling mission,” he says. “Any amount of preplanning we can do together will help us both toward a safe conclusion should an event require a call to the fire department.”

He adds that the decision to partner with the Columbus Fire Department for the Save Our Own training event “was an easy one.” He says, “These firefighters risk their lives to keep our communities safe in a variety of situations. If we can in some small way assist them in saving lives and protecting the neighborhoods, Rumpke is 100 percent on board.”