Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center
Los Angeles City Fire Department

The LA City Fire Department’s main training center for “In-service” training (training for fire department personnel, not new recruits) is in a grand art deco building near Dodger Stadium that once housed a Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center. In 1995, the building was vacated by the military, and transferred to the Fire Department. It is named after a firefighter who died while fighting a fire there in 1980, by falling through a fire-weakened roof.

Among the props in the training areas outside the building is what may be the largest rooftop training prop in Southern California. It is a structural skeleton of a building, with a large flat roof area, and a tall pitched roof area. Located nearby is a rescue house made from 2 stacked shipping containers ( side , front door, interior ), a confined space training area, and salvage vehicles used in cutting for victim extraction.

Firefighters practice shoring and cutting through roofing and flooring material, something often done in fighting structural fires in order to vent gases and smoke, and to prevent potential flashovers. Also on site is a five story metal drill tower ( interior 1 , interior 2 ) which was recently ordered from a company that premanufactures them and then assembles them on site. This drill tower has “hot house” capability ( detail ) , meaning that of it can ignite with propane in order to create more realistic training conditions.