AUBURN – The Maine Community College System awarded the Auburn Fire Department a $10,000 grant to upgrade its training equipment at the department’s central fire headquarters on Minot Avenue.

Deputy Chief Mike Minkowsky accepted a check from the college system after competing for the grant that will be used to maintain and upgrade the multi-jurisdictional training building, he said.

The current training building was built in 1989 and has been used extensively by many communities for more than two decades, Minkowsky said in a written release. Due to the aggressive nature of firefighting, the building, which is primarily masonry and metal, was in need of extensive repairs if it was to remain available for live fire training, he said.

“Getting real-life exposure to live fire conditions in a controlled environment enhances the training experience tremendously,” Minkowsky said. “This grant and the commitment of the Auburn firefighters to training excellence keeps our delivery of services at its optimum.”

He said the success of the grant application was due largely to the group effort lead by Capt. Don Flanagan who oversaw the coordinated grant-writing tasks by the Auburn Firefighters and the Androscoggin County Firefighters Association.

Deputy
Chief Mike Minkowsky of the Auburn Fire Department, receives a check from Walter Morris
of Maine Fire Training and Education.