Fire School
CENTER TWP — Crews of volunteer firefighters battled numerous blazes in a two-story house Sunday on North Duffy Road.
But unlike most house fires, no residents were displaced, no pets were in danger and no possessions were destroyed.
Fires were set intentionally in the vacant house and put out for training purposes — a way for firefighters to learn about how fires develop and practice working together.
“We are lighting small fires and the teams go through the stages of doing a 360 walkaround, locating the fire, getting the hose back to it and extinguishing it,” said Nathan Wulff, Butler County Fire Chief's Association secretary.
The structure fire training was one of seven classes firefighters participated in over the weekend as part of the association's annual Fire School.
Many of the classes were staged at Butler County Community College's public safety training facility, while a group of 25 men and women spent Sunday running through different scenarios at a real house. A vehicle rescue class also was held at Unionville Fire Hall.
At the North Duffy Road property, firefighters were split into groups of four or five and paired with an instructor. For each exercise, one group would be designated for attack, one team would be backup and one team would be rapid intervention in case the burning got out of control.
Their goal was to run as many scenarios as possible before the integrity of the structure was compromised and it became unsafe to have firefighters go inside, Wulff said.
“Safety is our No. 1 priority when doing this,” Wulff said.
At the end of the day, the structure was allowed to burn to the ground.
The firefighters participating in the structure fire training were not beginners or trainees; as a prerequisite they had all completed Essentials of Firefighting, meaning they were all certified to respond to actual fire calls.
Russ Weitzel of the Unionville department said this was his third structure burn training. It is a good way to learn about how a fire develops, Weitzel said.
“We're looking at different angles of how the fire reacts. Sometimes you could close a door and the fire smothers itself out,” he said.
One advantage they had Sunday was that the house was empty.
Every fire is different, and fire crews often don't know how much furniture or clutter they will encounter when entering a burning house.
“It could be anything. You never know what you are getting into,” Weitzel said.
Tim Kriebel, a member of the Emlenton Fire Department, said his department had five firefighters at the structure fire.
“We got to learn how to work as a team better and learn some of our weaknesses,” Kriebel said.As the roof and walls on the second floor started to burn, the teams inside the house had to test the integrity of the floor.“You test the sound of the floor with a tool or with the nozzle handle. You can tell when it is starting to give,” Kriebel said.This year's training was staged at a house that Center Township bought last year — the first piece of property needed to build a proposed road connecting North Duffy Road to Lions Road.The township had planned to demolish the house anyway, so allowing the fire school to burn it down was a “win-win” that saved money for both parties, Wulff said.The fire chiefs association had to follow state guidelines in order to get a permit to hold the exercise, Wulff said.To limit the environmental impact of the burning, the state Department of Environmental Protection inspected the house and told them to remove all carpeting. The house was also checked for asbestos.All furniture and appliances also were removed. Instructors set each fire using shipping pallets and hay.The 25 participants Sunday were joined by about 15 instructors and about 15 support staff. The Unionville department provided a fire engine, the Oneida Valley Fire Department provided a tanker truck, a Slippery Rock ambulance was on standby at the scene, and a rehabilitation unit from the Bruin department was present to help firefighters cool down after working in the structure.
