{"id":660418,"date":"2026-03-08T19:15:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T23:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/?p=660418"},"modified":"2026-03-07T07:44:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T12:44:56","slug":"hope-gas-officially-opens-safety-city-hope-academy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/08\/hope-gas-officially-opens-safety-city-hope-academy\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope Gas officially opens Safety City, Hope Academy"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLARKSBURG, W.Va.<\/strong> — Hope Gas has opened a state-of-the-art training facility in Clarksburg that will serve as an educational facility for all skill levels in the gas industry.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Morgan O’Brien<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hope Gas President and CEO Morgan O’Brien said the simulated neighborhood called Safety City has six homes and streets with utilities. The training center will serve continuing education as well as entry-level workers looking for a career.<\/p>\n

“It’s a state-of-the-art training facility that will allow Hope Gas employees to learn every skill set needed to work in the natural gas industry,” O’Brien said recently on WAJR’s “Talk of the Town.”<\/p>\n

Safety City will also be the location of the Hope Academy, according to O’Brien. Hope Gas has worked with area public schools, skilled unions, local fire departments and higher education institutions to fully maximize the available learning opportunities.<\/p>\n

“It’s a multi-tiered program where we will partner with vocation\/technical colleges around the state of West Virginia, and we’re creating summer programs to hire young people to work at Hope Gas in the summertime,” O’Brien said.<\/p>\n

The neighborhood provides the conditions where any “accident” or “incident” can be recreated to teach the proper response. Since the facility is purpose-built, it’s available when training is needed, not only when the facility is available.<\/p>\n

“We can replicate any issue that a customer could have in their home in a controlled setting,” O’Brien said. “Our people can get trained in everything from a leak in your yard, on the farm, or in the street or home.”<\/p>\n

On home is completely powered using the WATT HOME system. A fuel cell, battery, and inverter fully enabling home backup in grid outages. The system was recently certified for up to a 2kW power rating and qualifies for federal tax cuts as a critical clean power source.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to have a home completely powered by the WATT Fuel Cell,” O’Brien said. “It takes natural gas, converts it to hydrogen, and without combustion, creates electricity.”<\/p>\n

O’Brien said the Safety City and Hope Academy will be the starting point for many future careers and advanced technologies.<\/p>\n

“Some people talk about the Field of Dreams, and this is the Field of Hope,” O’Brien said. “This brings a bright future to young people, keeping them here in West Virginia and hopefully showing them how to get a foot in the door of the natural gas industry.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facility will help provide pipeline of workers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":527378,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-660418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nHope Gas officially opens Safety City, Hope Academy - WV MetroNews<\/title>\n <!-- Mirrored from wvmetronews.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/660418 by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Mon, 09 Mar 2026 12:44:23 GMT --> <!-- Added by HTTrack --><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /><!-- /Added by HTTrack --> <meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=_-28.html \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hope Gas officially opens Safety City, Hope Academy - 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