Facilities - Public Safety Training Center | Westmoreland County Community College, Youngwood, Pennsylvania

Premiere Training Facilities for the Emergency Response Community

Westmoreland's Public Safety Training Center is committed to providing excellence in education, training, certification and support services for firefighters, police officers, emergency service workers and personnel.

The facility features a burn building and tower with attached residential building that simulates industrial, commercial and residential structures as well as an outdoor firing range, rescue areas and more.

Burn building at PSTCClass A Unit Burn Building

The Class A burn building consists of a two-story building, capable of burning in six rooms. This building can augment various residential structure fire scenarios including basement fires.

Tower B (Class B Burn Building)

This building consists of multiple training areas that feature a two-and-a-half story residential unit and six-story tower arranged in an L-shape.

Tower B - Residential Unit Section

The residential component includes a typical first floor living room, kitchen, dining room and attached garage with overhead door. The second floor includes two bedrooms, a bathroom and an attic space. The building features two different roof slopes, flat and peak. A natural-gas fired training unit creates a bed/headboard fire with the ability to control the flame height and growth speed, the difficulty of extinguishment and how much "soak" time is needed to prevent reignition.

Tower B-  Six-Story Section

The six-story tower provides for a greater range of commercial training scenarios, such as: motel, office, high-rise apartments, shopping center, high-bay and mezzanine industrial storage areas and a 1,200-square-foot reconfigurable smoke maze. The tower also includes a second natural-gas fired simulator to recreate an industrial storage fire. This unit also has "flashover" capability, a feature to simulate the rapidly expanding ceiling fire spread phenomenon.

Administration/Classroom Building

Fashioned architecturally as a fire house, the 4,500 square-foot brick classroom building houses three classrooms, four showers, restrooms, offices and a break room. The primary classrooms can be expanded into one large classroom while the third classroom can be used as a lecture and/or practical training space.

PSTC administration/classroom buildingApparatus Bay

 Located next to the Administration/Classroom Building is a three-bay apparatus building that permits additional lecture space and practical classroom use.

Outdoor Training Props

The outdoor area beyond the training building contains multiple training props:

Full-Size Chlorine Railroad Car

This is a full-size railcar physically sitting on tracks. This prop can be used for various scenarios in addition to a chlorine leak, to include vehicle accidents with extrication needs.

Propane Storage Tank

The propane storage tank simulates a break in a supply line from a horizontal propane storage tank. The system provides training in the safe approach, cooling and extinguishment or control of an impingement fire and relief valve fire.

Industrial Pipe Fire Simulator

The vertical industrial pipe fire simulator, often referred to as a "Christmas tree," creates the conditions encountered during the control and suppression of an industrial gas pipe assembly. Flames initially engulf the tree two feet above the piping. When the students successfully locate and close the supply valve, the fire will diminish.

Structural Collapse Area

This area permits FEMA and PEMA Urban Search and Rescue Strike Team members to practice with specialized listening devices to locate trapped victims in simulated collapsed buildings and use heavy rescue tools to disentangle and extricate the victims.

Trench Rescue

Pipeline trenches can be dug and associated rescue training can be conducted to suit individual needs.

Training Pad

The training pad consists of 95,000 square feet that surrounds the training building. It is capable of safely supporting even the heaviest aerial apparatus. Overhead lights illuminate the training grounds and can be individually controlled for various scenarios and clean-up safety. This area can be used for various operations including helicopter maneuvers, apparatus roll-ins, Emergency Vehicle Operator Training (EVOT), hazardous materials and mass-casualties incidents.

Pump House

The pump house contains two electrically driven, 1,500 GPM pumps that take water from one of two ponds. The pumps feed five training fire hydrants through a dedicated 12" water line. All water used in the training evolutions is recycled into the pond through a network of underground piping. The ponds may also be used for water rescue training and include two floating docks.

Outdoor Firing Range

The outdoor firing range offers law enforcement and military personnel the opportunity to practice rifle and shotgun shooting techniques in a safe environment. Rent the range