See inside Wake Tech's new $59.8 million public safety simulation center

Wake Technical Community College is building a new public safety simulation center.

Police, fire and emergency medical crews will train using real-life scenarios to keep North Carolina communities safe at the new facility at 5401 Rolesville Road in Wendell.

Jamie Wicker is provost of public safety education at Wake Tech. She leads the team that's training first responders inside the complex. She explained how they’ll use the 80,311-square-foot facility, which cost $59,811,700 to build.

“[We can use it for] active shooters, school shooters,” Wicker said. “We can do EMS medical emergencies. We can do fire scenarios.”

The community college is replicating a town under the roof of a building on the future Eastern Wake 4.0 campus. Lining the mock Main Street inside, there's a jail, a store, four classrooms and a two-story townhome.

“It can be used for realistic scenarios for de-escalation, for patient care, for assessment, for communication,” Wicker said.

Crews are working on the facility with plans to open it in January 2024.

“There’s not a facility like this in the United States where you’ll be able to reenact scenarios that we hope never really happen in our community,” said Wake Tech President Scott Ralls.

Instructors will be able to stage different emergencies at the facility.

“We’re not saying, ‘Well, if this were to happen, what you would do is or what you should do is,’” Wicker said. “We’re saying, ‘here’s the scenario, let’s go work through it.’”

First responders will use the space to update their training as well as Wake Tech students.

“We have the ability here to do mass-casualty type scenarios and incidents,” Wicker said of the types of training they’ll conduct. “We have the ability to do high-level tactical training.”

Wake Tech already trains more than 26,000 public safety workers per year. The college expects to train even more in this new complex, including agencies from other states.

“A lot of the calls are very high-stakes, very fast-evolving and you’re having to make decisions on the fly,” Wicker said. “So, that’s a skill people can learn.”

Wicker said she thinks the facility is worth it if they can help first responders respond more quickly.

“Seconds matter in public safety,” Wicker said.