DECATUR, Ala. (AP) - Flames leap through the room, glass windows break from the heat and smoke billows from crevices of the small, ranch-style house.
Outside, six men ready themselves to move inside to knock down the flames. The controlled burn of an abandoned house on State Docks Road last week is part of the late stages of their training in the Decatur Fire Academy.
“This is what they’ve been waiting for,” said Jason Jones, battalion chief and fire marshal with Decatur Fire and Rescue.
The trainees, who have three weeks remaining in their four-month training school, have trained on a burn facility at the Fire Training Center in Flint that simulates structure fires. But the three controlled burns of vacant homes in consecutive days last week provided the trainees a realistic experience they otherwise wouldn’t get, Jones said.
Each house has a different floor plan and contains different building materials. The burn on State Docks Road on Thursday was a three-bedroom, partial brick ranch home with an enclosed carport.
Trainee Jonathan Anders, 27, of Decatur, described going into the burning house as “some of the best fun I’ve ever had.”
“It was neat,” he said. “It’s a thrill. It’s a rush for sure.”
Four of the trainees will become Decatur firefighters, another is with the Moulton Fire Department and the sixth is with the Madison Fire Department.
The new Decatur recruits, who will earn $30,550 annually, will bring the department’s force up to 115 firefighters, said Janice Johnson, Fire and Rescue’s operations division chief. The department had 126 firefighters two years ago when the city had a federal grant, she said.
Daniel Hale, 26, of Decatur, said the controlled fires in the vacant houses supplement the recruits’ work in class and in the controlled burn facility in Flint.
“You have to rely on what you’ve been taught,” said Hale, whose father is retired Decatur firefighter Harmon Hale.
The department uses vacant houses offered by owners if they meet the guidelines for training use, Johnson said. The owner is responsible for cleaning the property afterward, she said.
The layout of the State Docks Road house presents a floor plan that trainees are not as familiar with as they are the training center burn facility, said trainee Alan Moody, 31, of Caddo.
“It’s black, and you can’t see,” Moody said, describing the inside of the house. “You follow the wall that you can’t see. We took a right turn and there were the flames.”
Trainee Jeremy Pyle, 26, of Athens, also appreciated the opportunity to practice in a real house.
“I was nervous, but I have to say it was a very fulfilling experience,” he said.
The exercise is planned out to have a fire in a room, have the fire extinguished and then repeat the procedure in another room. A bale of straw on the floor is used to start the fire.
Two trainees accompanied by certified instructors will go in and extinguish the fire. The exercise is repeated in different rooms as the trainees swap turns entering the house.
Lt. Shaun Chandler, the academy’s lead field instructor, was pleased with the trainees’ work at the State Docks Road house.
“They did excellent,” he said. “Everybody got several good fires.”
The final three weeks of training will include firefighter rescue, high-angle rescue with ropes, and hazardous materials, Jones said.
Jones said the four Decatur trainees will replace retirees and promoted firefighters. The additional four firefighters will not get the department to full force and will not enable the department to meet a voluntary national industry standard called “two in, two out.” The rule says at least two firefighters can enter a burning structure if there are two other firefighters outside to rescue them. At least four firefighters have to be on a truck to meet the rule, but Decatur has only three firefighters on each truck because of the elimination of 15 positions last fall.
Presently, firefighters arriving on the first truck at a fire have to keep the fire under control until firefighters on a second truck arrive, Jones said.
The recruits all agreed the training was tougher than expected.
“It’s physically demanding and mentally demanding,” Hale said.
Anders said he feels good knowing that training is ending and he’s close to becoming a firefighter.
“The biggest deal is we’re learning to save people’s lives,” he said. “That’s what made me want to get into it. We’re helping people on their worst day.”
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Information from: The Decatur Daily, https://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/index.shtml
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