HAW RIVER, N.C. -- For the next several weeks, Alamance County firefighters and rescue personnel will be getting in a lot of training near Challenge Golf Course.
Carter Lewis, a developer from Roxboro who owns Hideaway Farms property off of Townbranch Road adjacent to the golf course, is getting ready to build a 130-lot subdivision on the land, said Sherry Clayton of Keller Williams Realty who is working with Lewis on the project.
"The plans have been drawn," Clayton said. "They have been approved. Hopefully, in the next 60 days the clearing and grading will start."
But before that begins, Lewis, who became sole owner of Challenge Golf Course last March, donated the existing structures on the land to Haw River Fire Department to burn for training exercises.
Haw River Fire Department has never received such a donation before.
"We are going to burn all of them down and train firefighters on it," said Capt. Jamie Joseph of the Haw River Fire Department.
While Haw River Fire Department is hosting all of the training sessions, which started April 9 and will continue until May 19, the department has invited other agencies to participate, including Graham, Pleasant Grove and Faucette fire departments, Alamance County Rescue and the Firefighter Academy at Alamance Community College.
"It worked really well for us to be able to work hand in hand with the fire departments like that," Clayton said.
On Saturday morning, Haw River Fire Department had live fire drills with Faucette and Pleasant Grove Fire Department. The three departments worked together to douse a house fire, shuttling water to the area as if it didn't have fire hydrant protection.
"We used tankers and brought water to the site, which is what we would do in an area that didn't have fire hydrants," Joseph said.
Most of the training that will involve fire and smoke will take place on Saturday mornings. But the departments participating will also practice ladder training, search and rescue and victim removal.
"We don't ever get to train like this," Joseph said. "That's the biggest part. It's real, and it's as real as you can get and that's what we need."
Copyright 2012 - Times-News, Burlington, N.C.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
