Fayetteville Technical Community College celebrated the completion of the Dr. J. Larry Keen Regional Fire and Emergency Training Complex on Wednesday with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting, marking the opening of the final cluster of buildings on the 30-acre facility.
The $45 million complex, located on Tom Starling Road in Fayetteville, is complete after a years-long project to build a state-of-the-art fire, rescue and emergency response training facility in Cumberland County.
The complex already included a Technical Rescue Training campus, which opened in September 2022, as well as the only indoor swift water rescue training facility on the East Coast, which opened in October 2023, and a four-story “cold” training tower.
The final phase of construction, which opened Wednesday, added:
- A two-story, apartment-style live-burn tower
- A one-story, residential live-burn building
- An aircraft live-burn simulator
- A 1,500-square-foot burn pit with spill way
- A concrete pad for staging various training scenarios
- A fire flashover training area
- An urban search-and-rescue training area
- Arson investigation training huts
- 5,000-square-foot burn material storage building
- Additional parking lot for a total of 94 spaces
Barnhill Contracting Co. is the project construction manager. HH Architecture is the architect.
FTCC President Dr. Mark Sorrells spoke moments before the ribbon-cutting, acknowledging the forethought, partnership and support required to bring the complex to fruition.
“This is a project that was built on vision and collaboration and on a shared commitment to strengthening the safety and resilience of our community,” Sorrells said. “This center now stands as the premier emergency training facility in North Carolina and as one of the finest on the East Coast. It reflects Fayetteville Technical Community College’s commitment to excellence and our responsibility to prepare a highly skilled workforce for the communities we serve.”
The complex was the result of a partnership between local leaders and bipartisan support from local and state legislators dating back to the tenure of former FTCC President Dr. J. Larry Keen, who is the complex’s namesake.
Keen joined Sorrells, Cumberland County Commissioners Chairman Kirk deViere, Commissioner Glenn Adams, former Commissioner Jimmy Keefe, and Cumberland County Fire Chiefs Association President Freddy Johnson Sr. to cut the ribbon.
Adams, who was the commissioner chair in 2021 when Cumberland County donated 30 acres of land and $10 million to kickstart the project, and deViere, who was a state senator at that time, both delivered remarks during Wednesday’s ceremony.
The North Carolina General Assembly provided $20 million in funding, and additional funding came from funds appropriated for construction from the county and institutional funds.
DeViere said the facility represented a cornerstone of public safety and economic development, with an impact that would be felt well beyond Cumberland County.
“We are training firefighters and emergency responders who protect our 300,000 residents, but we’re also creating workforce pipelines that keep our community safe and competitive,” deViere said. “And we’re demonstrating the kind of regional collaboration that makes Cumberland County stronger. This facility represents what we can accomplish when we work together. Education, public safety, economic opportunity — all in one place.”
The complex is the largest training facility of its kind in the region, providing a wide variety of specialized training experiences, and is a regional hub for fire and rescue personnel.
Johnson and the Fire Chiefs Association played a key role in designing the complex to meet the specific training needs for firefighters and rescue responders.
“This facility boosts the readiness of our first responders, specifically our fire and rescue personnel, and by doing that, it enhances our community safety,” Johnson said. “It also provides collaboration among all our public safety agencies, not just here in Cumberland County and Fayetteville, but regionally.”
The Technical Rescue Training campus, which opened in September 2022, includes a 26,000-square-foot building with classrooms, offices, meeting space, training simulators and an apparatus bay for three vehicles. The campus also includes a four-story “cold” training tower, an area for confined space and trench rescue training, a grain bin/farm rescue training area and a simulated communications tower.
The Swift Water Rescue Training Facility, opened in October 2023, contains a 140,000-gallon indoor tank equipped with 10 pumps that can create a flow of up to 7 knots. The facility allows first responders and others to train year-round in a variety of simulated conditions for rescues in floods, swift-water situations, and other water-rescue situations.
