After several years of planning, the California Fire Museum and Public Safety Education Center was approved by the Orange County Great Park, Board of Directors, today as one of the first venues to be placed in the Great Park in Irvine, California.
The 31,600-square-foot facility, designed with a mix of exhibits, interactive learning facilities and multi-purpose space for classes and other events, will be located on nearly three acres adjacent to the Great Park balloon ride. The project will be built in several phases.
Phase #1 will begin with a 5,800-square-foot “public safety education center” on 1.2 acres at an approximate $5 million price tag, with construction anticipated to begin within the next three years.
Don Croucher, President of the California Fire Museum, noted: “To be selected as one of the first venues in the Great Park is a great honor. Now the hard work begins, seeking support from all aspects of the community and the financial resources from philanthropic organizations and others required to bring this concept to reality.”
The California Fire Museum and Public Safety Education Center will be the first of its kind in California and unique among similar facilities throughout the country. A premiere destination for the public and fire service professionals to engage in educational and cultural programs, the venue will provide a full range of learning experiences, using advanced technologies, to bring historical and other displays to life, and facilitated learning through the use of interactive multimedia presentations and experiences.
As one of the first to be approved by the Great Park Board, the California Fire Museum and Public Safety Education Center could serve as a preview site for those that follow and a partner in developing this park into the greatest urban park in the nation from the ground up.
Spanning more than 1,300 acres, nearly twice the size of New York’s Central Park, the Great Park will be the largest urban park in the United States. Its location, in the center of Orange County, California, situates the Great Park in a diverse metropolitan community of three million located halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego and easily accessible to more than 10,000,000 Southern California residents.
The California Fire Museum Board does not intend to wait for construction to be completed. It plans to continue the community outreach it has provided for several decades and has a list of events to be held at the Great Park in the near future and as the project is developed.
David Hubert, Vice President of the California Fire Museum, agreed with Don Croucher: “We are looking for sponsors, members and assistance from the fire service, related organizations, the public it serves and particularly those with the financial resources to bring the Public Safety Education Center to reality.”
For more information and for opportunities to support and fund this effort, contact the California Fire Museum and Public Safety Education Center web site at: http://www.cafiremuseum.org/ and for information on the Orange County Great Park contact: http://www.ocgp.org/
