Early in the Mitch Daniels administration, the governor charged the Indiana Department of Homeland Security with the task of developing a regional approach for the delivery of firefighter training throughout the State. IDHS took on this challenge to provide state supported firefighter training and developed the Indiana Firefighter Training System. The Indiana Firefighter Training System has three primary objectives:

1. To deliver consistent, high quality training as close to the firefighter’s home jurisdiction as practical.
2. To increase collaboration among Hoosier fire departments and enhance partnerships with state and local government, as well as the private sector, for the enhancement of fire training delivery.
3. To increase the response capabilities and expertise of the Indiana Fire Service.

IDHS divided the state of Indiana into 10 regional training districts. District 3 consists of the following counties:

• Allen County
• Adams County
• Dekalb County
• Huntington County
• Lagrange County
• Miami County
• Noble County
• Steuben County
• Wabash County
• Wells County
• Whitley County

In February of 2006, Indiana DHS Staff and the State Fire Marshal Roger Johnson held a meeting at Ivy Tech with anyone interested in District 3 of the Indiana Firefighter's Training System. It was determined at the meeting that a task force was to be established with representatives from each county. The mission of the task force was to collect data and develop a "Needs Assessment" for firefighter training.

The task force determined that there need to be regional training hubs with in the district. There were three sites chosen. Huntington, Southwest Fire District and Auburn with Auburn designated as the central training hub. Auburn Fire Department had already been working on their training center before the training system came online. They had completed most of the work themselves.

Once the work was completed a dedication ceremony was held on August 8th, 2006. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels visited the site and designated it as one of the first 10 training centers in the state. The Governor praised the members of the Auburn Fire Department for the hard work and dedication is building this facility. There were a large number of firefighters from through out the area on-hand for the announcement. Both career and volunteer firefighters were well represented. There were also an impressive number of fire apparatus on hand for display.

On February 15th, 2007 the District 3 Training Council was elected to oversee the operations and financial duties for the district.