Goshen Fire Department dedicates Regional Training Facility to Chief Danny Sink

 

GOSHEN, Ind.-- Goshen Fire Chief Danny Sink had no idea the department's Regional Training Facility would be named after him at Friday's dedication ceremony.  

Sink is the longest-running chief for the city, having served 23 years.  

“The mayor got me; I truly had no idea," he said. “I’m a Goshen-born and raised guy. So, it makes it doubly special in that way, to be a born-and-raised kid from Goshen, and be the fire chief in the city that I love.”  

Friday’s dedication to the facility is nearly 20 years in the making and a crucial investment for first responder training.   

“Training is critical, that’s how we keep our staff safe," Sink said. "We train, and we train a lot. And we train in different disciplines.” 

 Steffen Schrock, assistant chief of training for the Goshen Fire Department, said the training tower is the "heart and soul" of the facility, located at 2109 Caragana Ct. The tower is built from old shipping containers, and designed to be burned.  

“We try to make it as real as possible, the training facility is designed to look like a home, has rooms, has bedrooms," Schrock said. “Expose them to those hazards, expose them to the rigors of the job, and so then it becomes commonplace, they become used to the work, we harden them to what we will see out on the streets.”  

Firefighters can practice live rescues in a terrifyingly accurate setting, but still safe for the first responders.   

“Our modern-day structures that we live in, our homes, are full of plastics, full of synthetic materials that burn nasty smoke. A lot of carcinogens, a lot of toxins in that smoke," Schrock said. "We’re burning wood, we’re burning straw.”  

Schrock said the Goshen facility is only one of four in Michiana and the only one in Elkhart County.   

“The development of this training facility has been in process for 20 years, and [Chief Sink] has been at the lead of it, and pushing us forward and empowering us to do great things. So, dedicating the facility to the chief is the right thing to do,” he said.   

The facility is not only utilized by Goshen firefighters but neighboring agencies as well, even the U.S. Army National Reserve.   

To see the training in action, the public is invited to witness a Fire Ops 101 course with facility sponsors on May 13.