By Aimee Dolloff
The Bangor Daily News (Maine)
CARMEL, Maine — Firefighters from four local departments gathered Saturday morning to hone their skills and at the same time help a property owner and the town.
About 35 firefighters from Carmel, Etna, Stetson and Hudson had emergency vehicles lined up starting around 8 a.m. in front of a neglected house at 380 Horseback Road to begin preparing for the training exercise.
After the owner of the property died, the house fell into disrepair and the town needed the site cleaned up. To help the family who inherited the property, the Carmel Fire Department was called in.
"It's a win-win situation," Carmel Fire Chief Mike Azavedo said.
The department has been using the building for training and preparing it for the burn all winter, but on arriving Saturday morning, they discovered someone had broken into the house and done some damage. Repairs had to be made before the burn could begin in order to meet federal regulations for a live training exercise.
Saturday's drill was twofold. It's part of a yearlong firefighting academy for the towns of Etna, Carmel, Hermon and Hudson, and also offers mutual aid training for three towns - Carmel, Etna and Stetson - that frequently work together at fire scenes.
"The timing and opportunity was right for my guys," said Hudson Fire Chief Bill Grant. "These are rare opportunities."
Typically, a department gets the opportunity to hold live-burn training at a house about once a year, but there can be long stretches where houses aren't available for such exercises.
Carmel has been fortunate the last three or four years, Azavedo said.
"It makes it a lot easier when you can use a real house," Azavedo said. "There's an element of fear that you don't get with fake smoke."
Firefighters Saturday got training on fire behavior, proper techniques for extinguishing a blaze, rescue and roof ventilation.
They lit the first fire shortly before 10 a.m. and firefighters had a chance to practice entering the burning structure and pulling a dummy victim from the house while smoke filled the structure and lingered in the air outside.
The plan was for eight teams of three firefighters each to practice various techniques, and to have the house burned to the ground by about 1 p.m.
"We hope to get eight fires before we lose it," Azavedo said.
Copyright 2008 Bangor Daily News
