February 25, 2025

Shipping container structure part of Everett's firefighting training plans

Image by Rice Fergus Miller [enlarge]

This view of the live-fire prop shows the simulated vessel gangway and pier-side U.S. naval damage control locker.

The city of Everett wants to build a firefighting training center on a 2.3-acre site it owns next to Naval Station Everett at 2100 W. Marine View Drive.

The center would allow U.S. Navy sailors and federal and city firefighters to conduct realistic, full-scale training exercises on a propane-fueled live-fire prop designed to simulate naval vessel fires and structural fires. The structure will also be used for search and rescue training, according to a project briefing sheet.

Rice Fergus Miller Architecture & Planning of Bremerton is the architect on the project that had an estimated construction budget of $7.2 million in the 2022 request for qualifications for its project designer.

Image from the city of Everett [enlarge]

Plans include an engineered structure built from shipping containers for live fire drills, a classroom building, and a garage and shop building.

The project would redevelop the industrially zoned site, which the city bought in 2019 for $5.7 million. The site is vacant and paved and is occasionally used to store city public works equipment and materials, according to the city's project briefing sheet.

Plans include a classroom building, a garage and shop building with space to house training support equipment, and the engineered structure built from shipping containers.

The training center will be the only marine firefighting facility in the state accessible to municipal firefighters, and the design includes simulations of a naval pier, an actual U.S. Navy damage control locker, and a naval brow — a gangway connecting vessels to land.

The city is applying for federal and state funding for the project, including a nearly $6.5 million funding request from the state Defense Community Compatibility Account, and plans to request $20 million in funding in the middle of this year from the Department of Defense's Defense Community Infrastructure Program, according to Rachael Doniger, a spokesperson with the Everett Fire Department.