Department of Fire Services - Stow Campus

Students and staff should park in designated areas. There is ample parking up the hill at the far end of the parking lot. Visitor parking is reserved for other visitors. There is plenty of handicapped parking.

Stow Facility Features

Administration Building
This building provides offices for: the Executive Office, the Fire Safety Division; the Massachusetts State Police Fire Investigation & Explosion Section; the Hazardous Materials Emergency Response Division; the Special Operations Unit; and other agency-wide administrative support personnel in fiscal, human resources, information technology and facilities.

The Link
This area “links” the Administration Building to the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy (MFA); is home to our reception area, a classroom that seats up to 120 people, and the café.

Massachusetts Firefighting Academy (MFA)
Five classrooms, computer lab, physical training area for students and employees, first aid room, locker rooms, and MFA administrative staff offices.

Live Fire Training Facility
The four-story, 17-room, live fire training building is specially constructed to allow repeated live fire training evolutions without structural damage to the facility. The Draeger Maze builds confidence in firefighters’ abilities to maneuver inside building fires. The drill yard has these additional training props: search & rescue prop; car fire prop; outdoor classroom; extinguisher area; dumpster prop; drafting pit; confined space rescue prop; arson prop; vehicle extrication; roof prop; and the flashover simulator prop.

Training Tower
A 6-story structure that is used for ladder, stair, hose, and rope training with a sprinkler lab on the 1st floor and an entanglement prop on the 5th.

Flammable Gas Training Area
Provides an opportunity for students to be exposed to firefighting techniques involving three types of flammable and/or cryogenic liquids and gases: liquefied petroleum gas, liquefied natural gas, and natural gas.

Water Recovery and Treatment System
Inasmuch as the use of water is a major part of our training, both the Stow and Springfield facilities have water recovery and treatment systems that are capable of capturing, treating, and recycling up to 75% of the water used for training.

There is handicapped parking at both the main entrance and the Firefighting Academy entrance, but only the main entrance has a switch for independent access to the building. There is a wheelchair at the main desk for use by guests. It may be helpful for guests attending graduations to better enjoy touring the facility as walking distances may be further than expected.

Access to the fire training areas is restricted to protect the safety of staff, students and visitors. People must have permission, safety gear and an escort.