The Keizer Fire District held a live fire training, or "Burn to Learn" course, on Nov. 17 in which the planned demolition of two derelict houses and a detached garage were used to provide firefighters with valuable fire control techniques.
The developers wanted to provide the fire district with the opportunity to use the houses for training and because the house materials are consumed by fire, the developers benefit by cost savings of debris removal.
Keizer Fire Chief Jeff Cowan added it is a benefit all around.
"Training with live fire is a very dangerous effort. Firefighters must make double safety effort and act with-in controlled circumstances," Cowan said.
The training preparation took weeks to perform including several inspections, hazard removal, and pre-planning to bring to reality.
Before the final fires were set, firefighters had the chance to practice rescue techniques, downed firefighter rescue, ventilation, fire attack and other fire control techniques.a structure they did not have to worry about damaging.
"In the end, we received invaluable experience, we were successful in all our objectives, and no one got hurt."
