Dalton Firefighters Get Rare Chance At "Real World" Training
Thursday, November 2nd, 2023
Firefighters train every day to be ready for the real thing, but they don't usually get to practice their skills in the "real" world. Instead, Dalton firefighters train in a pre-fabricated metal burn building that is set up to simulate the environment inside of a house. This week, however, they are getting the chance to take part in live fire training exercises in "real" houses thanks to a donation of property by Christian Heritage School. Once the training in the structures is complete, both structures will ultimately be burned to the ground.
Caption: Firefighters on a fire attack team enter a donated house on Keith Street during a live burn exercise
The Dalton Fire Department has been using the two donated houses at 129 and 131 Keith Street for training exercises since acquiring the structures in the spring. Because the houses have a different layout than the firefighters have become accustomed to in their training facility, they are ideal for search and rescue training.
"The different floor plan (than we're used to) is the big thing," said Training Chief Keith Dempsey. "Before (this week's) live burn, we’ve done all kinds of downed firefighter rescue classes over here, we’ve done oriented search classes where we’re perfecting all different kinds of search techniques. We’ve done a laundry list of different trainings over here since the late spring."
"If we don’t have live fire in there... we can have all kinds of things going on, maybe the ventilation team on the roof cutting a hole to make an artificial chimney… all kinds of things can be going on and it’s much like a football team: the quarterback does nothing like what the tight end does at the task level, but the overarching goal is to win the game by doing your job," Dempsey explained. "So you’re attacking this thing from all different angles and each company that shows up has a different job... what that looks like for us is fire attack, forcible entry gaining access to the structure, search, ventilation, utilities control, and then eventually once we get control over everything you roll into that salvage and overhaul phase where we’re starting to protect property. But all of those things are done simultaneously by different crews."
It's rare for the fire department to be able to conduct this type of real world fire training of course because most residents don't want to have the fire department burn their houses down. But even when the fire department has been able to acquire donated properties for training before their demolition, most still aren't able to be burned because of safety or environmental concerns. In the case of the houses on Keith Street, crews were able to remove the building materials that would cause environmental concerns prior to the live burn training.
Caption: A fire crew outside of the house attacks a flame as fire enters the attic of the structure during Thursday's training exercises
"Unfortunately, all the things that we have to do for the environment take away the natural fire behavior characteristics that we’re here to see," Dempsey said. "But we’re still getting a lot more realistic fire behavior than we do in that metal can (burn building) down there at Station 2."
While the donated houses have been useful for various types of search and rescue training and other types of training, the live fire training only has one purpose: fire attack and putting out fires.
"Once we burn, everybody has to be 100 percent crystal clear on where the fire is located, where we’re entering, and what that path of travel is going to be from a safety standpoint," Dempsey said. "Nothing but stretching the attack line and applying water to the fire. There’s no other operation going on in there and that’s per the national consensus standard that says that’s what we do."
Safety is of paramount concern during the exercises and that includes the safety of the surrounding area. Fire department officials are monitoring weather conditions closely, especially given the dry conditions that have caused outdoor burning bans in the northwest Georgia region. In fact, a training burn at the Keith Street site that had been scheduled for Wednesday, November 1st was cancelled due to high winds.
The Dalton Fire Department was joined for Thursday morning's training exercises by the Walker County Fire Department and the Catoosa County Fire Department, both of which provided trucks for the training. The Whitfield County Fire Department and other neighboring agencies will also take part before the end of the training. The department plans to continue the training exercises on Friday morning before the main house is allowed to burn until it collapses that afternoon. The secondary house on the site will be burned during training exercises on November 7th, weather conditions permitting.
Caption: Firefighters look on as smoke escapes from the house during a live fire training exercise
