It was a rare opportunity for some local fire fighters as they recently got to practice on an actual burning house.
St. Jean and Morris departments partnered for the live burn in Sewell, allowing newer members to experience how a fire looks inside of a structure, how smoke rolls and how heat can be different on certain levels.
"We hadn't had a house to burn in about five years," said Eugene Fillion, Chief of the St. Jean department, noting when the region would flood more frequently, abandoned houses would be left in its wake. That is no longer the case. "It's very rare that we get a house to burn to do live fire drills on. We usually do it at the training site and those are just containers that we light up."
This house was donated by a local family.
Not just a live burn
In the months leading up to the burn, the two departments ran drills in the structure using a smoke machine. One of those exercises focused on search and rescue.
"We used a dummy, that weights about 165 pounds, and put him in a room. We smoked up the house and sent two guys in to retrieve the dummy. We did that about three times," explained Fillion.
After weeks of fire bans, conditions were finally right for the live burn. So, the two departments headed out one evening at the end of July and ran a few more drills using real fire for about two hours before letting the house burn to the ground.
For the new members, Fillion says this was a valuable experience, noting they were surprised to see how much darker this smoke was compared that of the machine.
"Some of them had never been in a real house fire [...] they said they couldn't see anything. You see a glow when you get into the room and that's it, but the rest is pitch black."
Fire fighters also came out of the burning house quite filthy, added Fillion.
"They back out and their SCBA tanks were black, and their turnout gear was pretty black."
Fillion says it took another two hours for the house to completely burn, noting he monitored the situation late into the evening while the rest of the crew went back to the fire hall to wash their gear.