The grand complex that was in the 1890s known as Mudbaden Sulphur Springs is being transformed into a regional training facility for police, fire, even military personnel. Scott County Association for Leadership and Efficiency opened the site earlier this month in Sand Creek Township. (Photos by Mathias Baden)

Mike Briese, a veteran of the Jordan Fire Department, gazes out on gun ranges used by law enforcement personnel -- from Jordan police to area SWAT teams. Briese has SCALE regional training facility manager for several weeks. Among other things, he books and sets up for events at the facility. Members of SCALE pay dues that allow free access to their organizations' public servants.

Inside the historic building -- which hosts meeting rooms, a video simulator for police to practice decision-making and accuracy skills, and more -- many of the
architectural features that put it on the National Register of Historic Places still remain.

Scott County, which owns the building, has been careful to preserve the historical elements of the structure, especially the exterior. But there are still a few interior reminders of the past. In the dining room, a mural of Jesus breaking bread watches over
activities. Decades ago, the building served as a religious retreat and
school.

There’s a fire in Sand Creek Township, and John
Babin handles its remote control. A training officer for the Savage Fire Department, Babin is one of the area firefighters who during the first week of its operation learned how to use the SCALE regional public safety training facility’s burn tower.

On the first floor of the concrete and iron burn tower, flames leap as high as 16 feet and the heat tops off at somewhere between 1,300 and 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

On the second floor, flames could roll across the 8-foot-high ceiling
of a smaller room, simulating the burning of natural gases. Trainees use the burner on that floor, which looks like a commercial oven, to practice fighting a kitchen fire.

One of the members of SCALE is the Mdewakanton Emergency Services, the fire department that serves the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in Prior Lake. After the training facility's burn tower opened, the organization was the first to use it.

Members of the 53rd Civil Support Team, a formation of the
Indiana Army National Guard, crammed a six-month firefighter training course into an intense two weeks in Sand Creek Township. Mdewakanton Emergency Services led the training.

By day five,
they were putting out fires. During one drill, Roxie Stella and her team tended to the hose outside the building while two other teams of military personnel practiced fighting a fire from the inside of the burn tower.

Carl Roberts and Mark Smith check vital signs of Rescue Randy, a dummy who played the victim in fire scenarios last week.

During one scenario at the burn tower last week, firefighter course trainees brought out the dummy that was posing as a victim and conducted emergency medical procedures. Two other teams had gone in and come out through a first-floor door.

Rescue Randy
gets a lift from Nick Dilbeck (left), Mark Smith, Carl Roberts, and Roxie
Stella.

One the team noticed the camera, Carl Roberts reenacted carrying the dummy out of a burn tower. With a giggle, Mark Smith helped.

Trainees, who used equipment borrowed from Jackson Township and other fire departments, take a break. Rescue Randy (right) lies still, awaiting his next assignment.

Resetting for another fire
simulation takes mere minutes at the burn tower. That is one of the best things about the building, Briese said, because firefighters could spend a few hours readying an abandoned house to be burnt down in a training. At the burn tower, a 4- to 15-minute fire simulation can be repeated many times in a day.