The city of Hayward and Chabot-Las Positas Community College District have created a new campus and firehouse for fire, rescue and emergency response training and education.

The campus, comprising a new Hayward Fire Training Center and Fire Station 6, aims to provide state-of-the-art facilities to train urban search and rescue operations, as well as emergency response techniques.

A BART car sits on an elevated trackway at the new Fire Station 6 and Regional Fire Training Center in Hayward in an undated photo. The car is among several simulators designed to help train current and future first responders for a potential real-world emergency. (Courtesy city of Hayward)

The $82 million facility is located at the Hayward Executive Airport and consists of classrooms and offices, a new training tower and other facilities to practice search and rescue missions. It even has a passenger jet, an old bus from the Alameda County Transportation Commission and a BART train car on an elevated trackway.

The center will also be home to the Chabot College Academy, which coordinates firefighter and paramedic response in the city and trains fire service members on a local and regional scale.

To train the next generation of emergency responders, the center will also provide a laboratory and mentorship experiences for high schoolers enrolled in the Eden Area Regional Occupational Program.

YouTube video
A timelapse video shows the construction of the Hayward Regional Fire Training Center (City of Hayward/YouTube)

The presence of a donated steel beam taken from the wreckage of the fallen World Trade Center towers will sit at the entrance of apparatus Building 2 to symbolize the center’s purpose.

Funding for the campus was made possible through Hayward Measure C sales tax revenue and Chabot-Las Positas Community College District Measure A facility bond proceeds.