The new Orange Rural Fire training facility in Hillsborough barely looks like more than a few metal shipping containers stacked on and around each other, because that’s pretty much what it is.
Skeletal and primitive are words that jump to mind as you walk around the dark, green monster, painted that way in hopes of blending in with the trees surrounding it on land rented from the rock quarry. There’s no air conditioning, no bathrooms, and yet, somehow, the building is cutting-edge technology for efficient and effective firefighter training.
“Having a place to do live-burn training doesn’t come along as often as new hires do,” said Orange Rural Fire Chief Jeff Cabe. “So we haven’t been able to train new hires to the level we need to train them because the only place we could take them is to the facility in Chapel Hill.”…