Hayward Community College opens new emergency response campus
HAYWARD - The city of Hayward and Chabot-Las Positas Community College District inaugurated a new campus and firehouse Wednesday for fire, rescue and emergency response training and education.
The campus, comprised of 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.
The $82 million facility located at the Hayward Executive Airport 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.
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.