On April 5, Norfolk Fire had a live house burn for a training exercise. The purpose of the house burn was to get several new firefighter recruits on a live interior attack. There were about 15 new recruits and 30 other firefighters that were involved in this drill.
The training exercise started about 7:00 a.m. with a several interior attacks in the basement. Norfolk Fire also set up a drop tank to use for a water supply. They shuttled water using two rural tankers for rural training.
Firefighters were done with the basement after two hours of interior training. They set up two charged lines in front and back of the house to protect the other surrounding exposures.
After the exposures were protected, firefighters set fire to the garage to finish burning down the house. Within an hour and half, the house was fully engulfed. Two hours after setting the garage on fire, the house had dropped into the basement where it finished burning.
The city of Norfolk will clean up the house and turn the land into a park.
