For a few years, a local manufacturer has been partnering with Jefferson City firefighters to build a training center that could help train firemen on how to safely work in confined spaces.
For the third year, Unilever and the Jefferson City Fire Department sponsored the annual Hotter-N-Hell 5K and Family Fun events Saturday at the fire department's Hyde Park Training Facility. Money raised from the entry fees for the 5K went to efforts to build a confined space training unit at the training facility.
Doug Ray, plant manager at Unilever, said, "Unilever has several confined space areas, and we want our fire professionals to be safe, not only for situations that could arise in our plant, but for any situation that could arise in our community."
A confined space is an area that has any of these characteristics:
• Limited openings for entry and exit;
• Unfavorable natural ventilation;
• Not designed for continuous worker occupancy.
Examples include storage tanks, silos, pipelines and manholes.
The cost to construct the unit is $8,000. Central Dairy recently gave the fire department two tanks for the unit. Work has been going on the past several weeks, and the unit should be finished by next month.
Fire officials say they are appreciative of the partnership with Unilever.
"We can bring their people in to train because we have instructors with first-hand experience in dealing with confined space rescues," said Jefferson City interim Fire Chief Jason Turner. "It's been a great partnership, and I can't say enough about the partnership we have with the Unilever employees."