House Burn

Living in a small town or maybe moreso out in the country, house burns are becoming quite common for us. Since Nick is on the fire department he is given the oportunity to improve his skills in a safe and somewhat more controlled environment. A homeowner typically builds a new house on their property when their old 'farm house' is no longer suitable. This house was forclosed on and the neighbor bought the house and property to build a large shed on. The fire department received notification that a house was being donated to the fire department for training purposes.

The kids have always been with their dad when a house burn in scheduled. This time, they were home with us. We loaded up into the Explorer drove a few blocks away and watched them do their work for approximately three hours. They would fill the house with smoke from within and run drills of how to move through a house without seeing where you are going. They'd clear out the smoke and then create a positive pressure drill which would entail flames shooting out of windows upstairs, then put it out after their drill was run. The final step was filling the house with bails of hay and lighting it on fire one last time. They mainly stand guard with hoses spraying nearby structures and trees to help keep them from catching fire. If flames were shooting too far out of a window, they'd spray that window to get the flames to maintain their boundaries.

It was pretty neat to watch. The kids were bored between drills so they began to break the ice and expose the cold water beneath. Their snowpants were getting pretty wet, so I'd have them hop in the truck to warm up every so often.
This spring, we'll have another burn a mile away.