City, College District partner on new Regional Fire Training Center

The City of Hayward and Chabot-Las Positas Community College District have reached agreement on a partnership to jointly develop a new regional center for firefighter, paramedic, rescue, and emergency response education and training.

The new $60 million Regional Fire Training Center will be constructed at the City’s Hayward Executive Airport as a campus with classrooms, offices, a training tower and other facilities for urban search and rescue, and other types of emergency response, as well as a new Hayward Fire Station #6.

At a time when firefighting personnel are being stretched thin across California, the groundbreaking project will put the City and Chabot College on the forefront of creating our next generation of first responders.

The training center will become the new home of and allow for expansion of Chabot’s fire academy.  Through the partnership, Hayward Fire Department will add both a world-class training facility and a new fire station that can serve Hayward Executive Airport, surrounding neighborhoods and industrial areas west of Interstate 880.  High school students in Eden Area Regional Occupational Program career preparation courses taught by Hayward firefighters also will benefit.

Under a memorandum of understanding recently approved by the Hayward City Council and Chabot-Las Positas Board of Trustees, Hayward will contribute $40 million and the College district $20 million to the projected $60 million cost of the Training Center.  A use agreement still to be finalized between the City and District will govern the shared operating roles and responsibilities.  The project is expected to take approximately 18 months to complete once construction begins.