In September of 1959 the Litchfield County Fire Chiefs Emergency Plan, Inc. voted to build a training school.  A site in the Burrville section of Torrington was chosen.  In January of 1960, President Horace Squires, appointed a Building Committee of William Canty, Chairman, John Noble, John Mullen, John Gibb, Leslie Kilmer, Allen Bowkett, and August Mahieu.  Through the efforts of this committee along with many others, the training school was dedicated on September 3, 1961.  William Canty was named the Director of the school and the first course was conducted in May of 1962.  Chief Frank Yanok of Torrington conducted classes for many years and also began the task of training more instructors so that the school’s curriculum could be expanded. 

 

The original classroom building has been added on to several times.  It  had two classrooms, and an auxiliary classroom, instructor prep room, office, equipment room, kitchen, furnace room, generator room, and a couple of storage rooms.   

           

The original smoke house was converted to an oil pump house and then eventually torn down when the school stopped using oil for training fires.  The smoke house has a basement, first floor, second floor, and attic.  The attic contains a maze for SCBA training.  Live fire training had not been allowed for several years due to the physical condition of the building. 

           

The original tower was four stories high.  Although another floor was added.  Many older firefighters can remember jumping from the tower into a life net.  This has not been done for over two decades because of safety concerns.

In 2016 the original buildings were razed to make way for a new facility which is schedule to open in September of 2018. Two storage buildings were constructed over the years and remain today.

           

The Fire School is managed by the Litchfield County Fire Chiefs Emergency Plan, Inc. (Exempt Organization, 501 (C) (3)) through its’ School Committee.  The school director is charged with over seeing the day-to-day operations of the school.  The assistant school director is responsible for course curriculum and instructors.  Instructors hired by the school are all certified by the State of Connecticut.