CROSS LAKE – Irving Woodlands has donated to Aroostook County 2 acres along Route 161 used by the Cross Lake Fire Department and the Lakeview Seniors Citizens Club.

The donation has allowed the county to accept a $50,000 Community Development Block Grant to help build a $70,000 building at Cross Lake, where a fire training facility will be constructed.

The county is putting $22,000 into the project.

Helping the application was the donation of the land by Irving, approved by James Irving, president of Irving Woodlands.

“This gift is already beginning to pay rich dividends for the residents of Cross Lake and the northern region, in the form of grants and other county initiatives,” said Douglas Beaulieu, Aroostook County administrator.

The grant for the fire training center comes from the state Department of Economic and Community Development.

The facility will be available to all departments north of Caribou.

Beaulieu said the Irving donation was the impetus for the county to commit funding for new septic systems at the site.

The fire training project is the brainchild of Darren Woods, Aroostook County fire chief and leader of fire departments in Sinclair and Cross Lake.

Beaulieu also credits Irving representative James Dube of Fort Kent and Woods for being the catalysts for the project and the donation.

The plans is to build a concrete block structure where controlled burns can be ignited for interior firefighting training.

The training center is about 10 by 200 feet and includes a stairway, metal doors and windows. It allows for controlled burns where firefighters get training in smoke and fire and how to climb in zero visibility. It will include dummy bodies that firefighters must find and carry out under fire conditions.

Also inside will be old furniture to create obstacles for trainees.

They expect the facility to be constructed in early summer.