{"id":36273,"date":"2026-04-24T16:54:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T21:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=36273"},"modified":"2026-04-24T16:54:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T21:54:02","slug":"ribbon-cutting-held-for-new-effingham-fire-training-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/36273-ribbon-cutting-held-for-new-effingham-fire-training-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Ribbon Cutting Held for New Effingham Fire Training Center"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>A ribbon cutting ceremony was held Friday to mark the opening of the Effingham Fire Training Center.<\/p>\n<p>The facility, located just off Eiche Avenue, replaces the original smaller center and will be made available not only to the Effingham Fire Department but to area fire departments. Effingham Fire Chief Brant Yochum said that will be beneficial since fire companies often fight fires together, so can train together.<\/p>\n<p>(EFFINGHAM FIRE CHIEF BRANT YOCHUM)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-36275 additional-class\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/chief-yochum-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/chief-yochum-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/chief-yochum-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/chief-yochum-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/chief-yochum-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/chief-yochum-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/chief-yochum-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Yochum credited many people for their help with the facility, including Mayor Mike Schutzbach and the City Council for budgeting for the project. He mentioned two members of the fire department, Jason Lee and Matt Carpenter, for their help in designing the center, and recognized Director of Public Works Jeremy Heuerman and public works staffers for their flexibility in helping get materials to the site to facilitate construction.<\/p>\n<p>(THE NEW EFFINGHAM FIRE TRAINING CENTER)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-36277 additional-class\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fire-training-center-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fire-training-center-1-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fire-training-center-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fire-training-center-1-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fire-training-center-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fire-training-center-1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fire-training-center-1-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The building will quickly be put to use, with Yochum saying that training is scheduled for Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The Effingham department is also working toward delivery of a new ladder truck. Yochum said the equipment and training are keys to Effingham earning an ISO rating of 2, meaning lower insurance rates for Effingham.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A ribbon cutting ceremony was held Friday to mark the opening of the Effingham Fire Training Center. The facility, located just off Eiche Avenue, replaces the original smaller center and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":36274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ribbon Cutting Held for New Effingham Fire Training Center - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/36273-ribbon-cutting-held-for-new-effingham-fire-training-center\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ribbon Cutting Held for New Effingham Fire Training Center - 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