RANGELEY — Christmas will come early for Rangeley Fire Rescue this year.

Rangeley Fire Rescue received a $22,000 grant from the Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation to buy Max Fire Box Phase II educational tool that is a scaled two-story residential house with an addable attached garage for training purposes. Shawn Bloemaker of Illinois who created the reusable training prop will visit Rangeley on Wednesday to teach firefighters how to use it. Shawn Bloemaker photo

Firefighters have been looking at a delivered package for a month at the fire station waiting for the creator to arrive from Illinois to open it, set it up and train them on the reburnable Max Fire Box II.

The creator, Shawn Bloemaker, is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday to do just that.

The department received a $22,000 grant from the Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation to buy the Max Fire Box Phase II Educational “Burn and Learn” prop, Chief Mike Bacon said Friday.

The box contains a two-story house built to scale, which weighs an estimated 1,000 pounds, he said. It comes with a mini crane to remove the second-floor and to add an attached garage made from steel for training purposes.

The Max Fire Box is a reusable, practical and safe solution for studying hands-on fire behavior, Bacon said.

Firefighters will be able to train with thermal imaging cameras so they can look at the heat and fire flow of different fire paths and patterns.

“This is big for us. It is only the second one in the state,” he said. “We are really excited about it.”

In November 2021, the Mid-Maine Technical Center Emergency Services Program in Waterville purchased the first Max Fire Box Phase II, according to Bloemaker’s information.

Firefighters usually use so-called wooden doll houses made out of plywood for fire training but once it is set on fire and burns, it can’t be reused and offers limited training, Bacon said.

This is a better approach to educating firefighters. The fire instructor will be able to teach fire flow paths, fire behavior and thermal imaging.

Shawn Bloemaker of Illinois will visit Rangeley Fire Rescue on Wednesday in Rangeley to teach firefighters how to use their new Max Fire Box Phase II Educational “Burn & Learn” prop. The department received a $22,000 grant from the Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation to buy the training tool. Shawn Bloemaker photo

“The town of Rangeley is growing and along with that growth so has our fire department,” Bacon said. “In the past four years we have added two full-time firefighters to allow seven days a week daytime coverage. As a department we have also focused on our training by adding more instructors as well. Our goal is to provide the best emergency response to our community and our mutual aid partners.”

Rangeley Fire Rescue is responsible for covering 650 square miles that includes 22 towns and townships in Franklin and Oxford Counties.

Bacon said once they are trained on the box, they will be offering to train other fire services. The training will need to happen at a Rangeley Fire Rescue Station. The town has two stations, one in downtown Rangeley and one in Oquossoc Village.

For additional information on the project, people can contact Bacon at 207-951-0408 or Lt. Camdan Carmichael, the department’s public information officer, at 207-670-8182