Amid ongoing swift water rescues and record-breaking flooding in western North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, a training complex in Fayetteville hopes to prepare the state’s emergency responders.

The Dr. J. Larry Keen Regional Fire & Emergency Training Complex is an indoor swift water rescue training facility and a four-story live-burn training tower. A groundbreaking Tuesday for the final phase of construction celebrated plans to increase the training capacity of the 30-acre campus located on Tom Starling Road in Fayetteville.

Fayetteville Technical Community College President Mark Sorrells said at the ceremony that the timing could not have been more apt with the devastation that Hurricane Helene has wreaked in western North Carolina. 

“What a timely investment that our community has made to enhance our public safety and to enhance our ability for emergency responders to be extremely prepared for whatever scenario they face,” Sorrells said in a press release about the groundbreaking.

Two white men speak to each other.
Mark A. Sorrells, president of Fayetteville Technical Community College (L), and Freddy L. Johnson, chief of Stoney Point Fire Department (R), prepare to speak before the groundbreaking ceremony celebrating the final construction phase of the $45 million Dr. J. Larry Keen Regional Fire and Emergency Training Complex. Credit: Tony Wooten / CityView

Freddy Johnson, president of the Cumberland County Fire Chiefs Association, pointed to a fire department located near Charlotte that received their certification two months ago and underwent training at the Fayetteville complex.

“They are now using the training, the skills they have learned in our facility and are saving lives in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene,” Johnson said.

According to FTCC’s press release, the final phase of construction will include a two-story live-burn apartment-style tower, a one-story residential live-burn building, an aircraft live burn simulator, a 1,500-square-foot burn pit, a concrete pad for staging various training scenarios, a fire flashover training area and an urban search-and-rescue training area.

“These buildings are designed to offer training with realistic scenarios and live props,” Johnson said.

A 4-story concrete building during the daytime.
The 4-story, live-burn training tower, constructed in the first phase of the development of the Dr. J. Larry Keen Regional Fire and Emergency Training Complex, serves as the background of a groundbreaking ceremony on Oct. 1, 2024. Credit: Tony Wooten / CityView

Named for former FTCC President J. Larry Keen, the $45 million complex is the largest of its kind, allowing for specialized training for fire and rescue personnel with the Technical Rescue Training campus, which features the only indoor swift water rescue training facility on the East Coast. 

Johnson gave credit to Keen as “the vision who started it all.”

A line of people wear white hard hats and hold shovels in their hands at a groundbreaking ceremony. Some of the shovels hold tan-colored dirt.
Elected officials and community leaders at the groundbreaking ceremony celebrating the final phase in constructing for Dr. J. Larry Keen Regional Fire and Emergency Training Complex. Credit: Tony Wooten / CityView

“When we finally found the property, Commissioner Jimmy Keefe said Dr. Keen was doing back flips,” Johnson said of the plans for the facility.

He said approvals from Cumberland County and FTCC moved the facility’s plans along swiftly.

“It was fast-tracked and the rest is history,” Johnson said.

The Swift Water Rescue Training Facility, which is part of the complex, opened in October 2023. It contains a 140,000-gallon indoor tank equipped with 10 pumps that can create a flow of up to 7 knots. The facility allows first responders and others to train year-round in a variety of simulated conditions for rescues in floods, swift-water situations and other water-rescue situations, according to FTCC officials.

Jami McLaughlin is a freelance writer for CityView. She has deep family roots in Spring Lake and in Cumberland County and is also currently the director of government relations and military affairs for the Greater Fayetteville Chamber. She is a graduate of East Carolina University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in communications, and Central Michigan University, where she earned a master’s degree in administration. She has four beautiful children who attend Village Christian Academy.