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At its last meeting Wednesday, the Ukiah City Council “re-approved” the purchase of a fire training tower with the use of nearly $500,000 in disaster settlement funds from Pacific Gas and Electric.

According to the staff agenda report for the item, which was on the Consent Calendar for the Sept. 7 meeting, the purchase was first approved from Fire Training Systems on May 4 for the amount of $399,971, but “the tower’s price has increased during the negotiations due to inflation and global supply chain issues.”

Staff also noted that the increased amount of $467,822 will be funded by PG&E Disaster Settlement Funds.

Also this week, Mendocino County officials reported that multiple fire agencies are purchasing such towers. Chief Executive Officer Darcie Antle announced in a press release Thursday that “money provided to local fire agencies by the county of Mendocino has been used to purchase and install training towers in Hopland, Manchester and Laytonville.”

The press release describes the towers as being “built and installed by Affordable Drill Towers out of Austin, Texas,” and being five stories tall.

“These towers provide several anchor points to allowing firefighters to practice high angle rescue,” the release continues. “Additionally, the towers can be used to conduct ladder drills, fire hose usage through a 2 ½ inch standpipe that provides water to three levels of the structure, and training with fire suppression systems like fire sprinkler heads.”

The release points out that “training with fire sprinkler heads and high angle rescue are particularly valuable, as there are limited opportunities to train without access to these types of specialty towers.”

According to Antle, “these facilities will be available regionally for various fire agencies throughout the county, (and) two additional large towers, also partially funded by the county of Mendocino’s PG&E fund allocation, should be installed within the next 8 to 9 months.”

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