The Mehlville Fire Protection District has officially been training at its new training center for over a year, after the facility has been in the making since 2017. 

The training center, located at 4471 Baumgartner Road in Oakville, has been in the works since late 2017, when the St. Louis County Planning Commission recommended approval of the fire district’s rezoning request for the 3-acre site. The district purchased the property from Canaan Baptist Church for $213,000 in January 2017. 

The training center is on the north side of Baumgartner Road and the south side of Old Baumgartner Road, just over 1,000 feet east of Baumgartner Industrial Drive. 

Construction on the multistory training center began in 2019, and the center began hosting training events in August of last year. 

The multi-level training structure can be used to conduct live fire training in four burn rooms, which allows for training in fires of up to 1200 degrees. Additionally, the floor plan provides training opportunities for different kinds of facilities firefighters may be working in, such as single-family residences, apartments and hotels. The training center uses pallets and straw bales as the primary fuel for training fires. 

According to information from the district, smoke from training sessions will not cause traffic concerns along Baumgartner Road, because of the facility’s setback. 

In addition to live fire training, the facility will also be used for rappelling, confined space training, driver training, hazardous materials drills and ladder training. 

“MFPD firefighters now have more opportunities to practice their skills in a wide variety of challenging rescue scenarios,” a release from the district said.