Learning from the Fire

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The Lamar Fire Department spent the day this past Saturday, February 16, conducting a controlled house fire as a training exercise.  The abandoned house in the 500 block of South 4^th Street in Lamar had been scheduled to burn the week before, but the exercise was postponed because of windy conditions.

Through the course of the exercise, several fires were set in each of the rooms and extinguished, giving all the firefighters an opportunity to handle equipment under real conditions, deal with smoke and limited visibility, make use of their gear and develop teamwork techniques that are usually taught only in the classroom.   The fire department didn’t have far to travel, as the department is head-quartered right across the street from the house which was donated to the city for training purposes.

Although the exercise took place in a residential area, firefighters made sure the fire was centralized to just the house in question and did not affect the adjoining properties or the trees surrounding the area.  Finally, when all the firefighters had their chance to take part in the exercise, the building was allowed to burn completely.