A new 24,000-square-foot building at Fayetteville Technical Community College is closer to being finished. The new state-of-the-art FTCC-Cumberland County Regional Fire and Rescue Training Center will house classrooms, offices and simulation labs which will serve as a state-of-the-art training for local and regional firefighters.

The North Carolina General Assembly recognized the project’s significance in its most recent session, allocating $20 million over two years for its next phase.

Besides the classroom and office building, the project’s first phase will include a four-story training tower and a three-story burn building where live burning exercises can be conducted. State and county officials and other dignitaries signed their names to a steel beam, then watched as the beam was hoisted and installed in a building that will anchor the FTCC-Cumberland County Regional Fire & Rescue Training Center.

The steel beam that was signed as part of a traditional “Topping Out” ceremony earlier this month was the last beam to be installed in this building. Several local and state officials came to sign the beam. Those officials included N.C. Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey, N.C. Sen. Kirk deViere, N.C. Rep. John Szoka, Cumberland County Commissioners Glenn Adams, Jimmy Keefe and Michael Boose, and N.C. Community College System President Thomas Stith, as well as fire chiefs from several local departments.

“This center will provide hands-on specialized training in a wide variety of emergency situations,” FTCC President Dr. Larry Keen said. “Firefighters and first responders will be able to do their jobs more effectively and safely and their training will pay dividends to the people they are able to help.”