Emergency Services Training Campus to Provide Important Training & Recruitment Opportunities

The Friends of the Easton Volunteer Fire Department (EVFD) are in the midst of an important Public Safety Capital Campaign for its Emergency Services Training Campus in Easton, Maryland. Located at 9095 Mistletoe Drive, the state-of-the-art training campus will serve the town of Easton, fire departments, emergency service personnel, law enforcement, and paramedics in Talbot County for specialized education and certification. Currently, volunteer firemen on the Mid-Shore have two options for training facilities in Princess Anne in Somerset County or Centreville in Queen Anne’s County.

Components of the project include a 3,500-square-foot concrete public safety building for first responder training; a 3,600-square-foot classroom training and storage building; and a 1,500-square-foot concrete pad for car fire, extrication/stabilization, and traffic safety training. Training for fire departments will include firefighting skills, rescue, and motor-vehicle fire/extraction. Law enforcement training will include hostage rescue, physical training/testing, traffic training, Homeland Security, and K-9. Emergency Medical Services can use classroom facilities for their training.

“This state-of-the-art training campus will not only support Easton Volunteer Fire Department (EVFD) members for their training but will also help us in recruiting and training new members for the department. The training campus will also enable us to support our partners in law enforcement and emergency services in their training and recruitment needs and to better coordinate our roles in emergencies. We encourage the community to support our fundraising efforts as we embark on this $5 million goal,” states Daryl Caldwell, Captain of EVFD.

The town of Easton gifted the use of a 2.7-acre property on Mistletoe Drive to the Easton Volunteer Fire Department for a state-of-the-art training center. This facility will serve both the town of Easton and the six local volunteer fire departments in Talbot County, as well as fire departments across the Mid-Shore. Talbot County has 260 active firefighters that respond to thousands of calls. EVFD responded to 896 calls involving 10,000 man hours in 2022 and conducted 1910 hours of training in 2022.

“It has never been more important than now to train our first responders and emergency personnel who serve Talbot County every day. There currently is no dedicated first responder training campus in Talbot County. The Friends of the EVFD and its volunteers accepted the challenge to raise $5 million for facility construction and operational expenses for the new campus. This campaign is essential toward ensuring cutting-edge training is available for all emergency services personnel,” states Brett Whitehead, Co-Chairman of the campaign.

“The sheriff’s office is very excited to see this project come to fruition.  The facility will not only offer training to our dedicated volunteer firefighters but will be able to support training for our deputies and police officers.  Our citizens deserve the best-trained law enforcement officers. This training facility will support localized training to better equip our deputies while saving hard-earned taxpayer funds through reduced travel time and associated expenses. The facility will also be available for K-9 training for tracking people as well as drug detection,” comments Joe Gamble, Talbot County Sheriff.

“We’re very excited about the brand-new state-of-the-art training facility to be used by fire departments, EMTs, and law enforcement around the Mid-Shore. This facility will allow us to train and recruit talented first responders from around the region. The Town is fully committed to helping our first responders safely and effectively serve our community, and this training facility is a crucial resource that will improve many facets of their operations. We are very thankful for the dedication and selfless service of the men and women who volunteer to protect and serve our Town, and thankful that they go above and beyond to ensure our community’s safety, states Megan JM Cook, Mayor, Town of Easton.