The WHP Story

WHP Trainingtowers proudly celebrates its 45th anniversary, a testament to more than four decades of engineering excellence. This milestone highlights the company’s unwavering commitment to quality and reliability, solidifying its position as the world’s most trusted fire training tower provider.

WHP Trainingtowers is officially recognized as a Women’s Business Enterprise by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. This prestigious certification is considered the gold standard for women-owned businesses across the United States. It verifies that WHP Trainingtowers is at least 51% owned, operated, and controlled by a woman, highlighting our commitment to leadership, equity, and excellence.

Continuing WHP Trainingtowers legacy as a family business, Founder & Retired Fire Chief Bill Janke’s children, Maggie Scaletty & Steven Janke, along with long-time family friend and coworker, Joe Kirchner, purchase WHP Trainingtowers. Each business partner brings different strengths to WHP, ensuring the company remains the most trusted fire training tower provider in the world.

WHP completes its 1,000th project with The Louisville Fire Department. The new facility includes five burn rooms, a dedicated roof training platform, and a wireless smoke system distributed throughout the building. This one-of-a-kind training center can simulate nearly any residential or commercial fire, providing firefighters with hands-on, real life training they simply can’t get anywhere else.

WHP Trainingtowers expands to a second property manufacturing space to meet the rising demand for purpose-built steel training towers.

WHP is proud to be the Official Training Tower Partner of the Firefighter Challenge League and provides the event with our WHP Firefighter Stair Challenge Tower. This event brings together the best of the elite firefighters from the US and around the world and serves as a test of their physical abilities.

WHP expands shop and lot to triple manufacturing space. The company location moves across the Kansas City border from Overland Park, Kansas to Grandview, Missouri.

WHP Introduces the Mobile Hazmat Trailer which features realistic props from the Hazmat Instructor Series to simulate a wide range of emergency hazmat scenarios. Using air compressors it recreates smoke, liquid spills, gas leaks, falling cylinders, exploding drums, and more. Fully customizable, it allows hands-on training for situations such as plugging, patching, and neutralizing leaks using specialized props.

WHP introduces the next generation of live fire training thermal protection with their patented Pagenite Interlock tile system. The design features expansion and contraction joints to allow independent tile movement and flexibility, while offset mounting channels provide maximum air movement—ensuring the integrity of the thermal envelope during rapid heat and cooling cycles.

WHP Trainingtowers proudly celebrates its 40th anniversary, a testament to the company’s commitment to quality, innovation and expertise. With four decades of engineering excellence, this milestone highlights its position as the world’s most trusted fire training tower provider.

WHP Trainingtowers introduces a permanent waterproofing component to concrete floor decks reducing maintenance and increasing lifespan of the structure.

WHP Trainingtowers upgrades hollow metal doors to plate steel doors and continuous hinges increasing the durability and reducing maintenance.

WHP unveils the MODx Modular Tower to the public at FDIC. Unlike traditional fire training shipping containers, MODx modules utilize fully galvanized structural steel frames that allow for open floor plans without any interior structural walls or supports. MODx is made with American Steel, can be easily expanded in the future and has a life expectancy that outlasts any other comparable product on the market today.

WHP designs the first fully integrated Hazmat City™ training facility for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. A custom-built industrial warehouse and lot with dozens of training simulations, this facility provides “real-world” scenarios for first responders. A state-of-the-art control room allows instructors to generate sounds, odors and unexpected actions to provide the most realistic hazmat training exercises.

WHP Trainingtowers upgrades the maze panel system to function without ceiling tracks increasing the usable maze area to the entire structure. Move and reconfigure to maximize search and rescue training.

WHP Trainingtowers upgrades rappelling anchors to forged hot-dipped galvanized swivel-style anchors for increased safety and capacity.

WHP upgrades to hot-dipped galvanized steel as a standard on all stairs, railing, ladders, and other fabricated components lowering maintenance and increasing longevity.

WHP Trainingtowers redesigns shutters doubling the thickness of the steel and adding a hardware package operable from the inside and out.

WHP Introduces concrete floors throughout the entire structure for increased durability and longevity.

President and Owner, Chief Bill Jahnke (Ret.), renames the company to WHP Trainingtowers. WHP provides the highest quality, most rugged steel training towers available worldwide.

Fire Chief Bill Jahnke (Ret.) purchases Werner-Herbison-Padgett and relocates the company to Overland Park, KS. Bill has over 28 years of firefighting experience coupled with over 45 years in construction management managing large scale construction projects. 

Werner-Herbison-Padgett introduces the first high temperature, thermal insulating burn room liner specifically made for fire training - Padgenite™. The patented calcium silicate tiles protect all types of buildings — whether concrete, metal or shipping containers – withstanding temperatures of up to 2000ºF. Our thermal lining system also greatly reduces the maintenance associated with other products.

Bernie Padgett founds Werner-Herbison-Padgett, a large Chicago construction company. Padgett has a reputation for quality, integrity, and customer service. Seeing the need for a fire training building that withstands repetitive use in harsh environments, he introduces the first ever metal fire training tower. His very first training tower is still in use today in Kotzebue, Alaska...over 45 years later!