By Joel Martin
Columbia Basin Herald
MOSES LAKE, Wash. — The alert that came out from MACC Dispatch Monday, that a house on East Terrace Avenue in Moses Lake was engulfed in flames with people inside, was part of an exercise with no actual fire or victims involved. Instead, it was designed to be a training simulating a real situation firefighters might respond to.
“This is a realistic training that we get with houses that are going to be decommissioned,” said Moses Lake Fire Department Battalion Chief Brandon Burns, who’s in charge of training for the department.
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The house, and two across the street from it, were bought by Moses Lake Community Health a couple of years ago, according to county records. The land needs to be cleared off so a road can be built to connect Coolidge Drive with Wheeler Road and alleviate the traffic on Terrace Avenue, Burns explained. Rather than being knocked down, they were given to the MLFD to train on.
The smoke at the scene came from smoke bombs, Burns explained. The firefighters will use the house to practice techniques they’ll need when an actual fire breaks out.
“They’re working on search and rescue,” Burns said. “They’re going to work (on) dragging hose line. They’re going to work on interior wall breaches. They’re going to work on exterior wall breaches and roof ventilation. We have (the houses) for two weeks to be able to cut holes and everything else.”
Having the houses become available was serendipitous for the MLFD, because the department runs three shifts of 15. The department gets a house to train on maybe once a year, Burns said; getting three is a lot less common.
“Each shift gets a house,” Burns said. “That way they don’t come over and start tearing our house up. And they’d be really upset if we went over and started tearing holes in theirs. Because it’s hard when you only have one house and you’re trying to get 45 guys through.”
Each shift will have a training officer who’s responsible for accounting for the time spent and making sure all three shifts are doing the same thing in the same hours.
“Each shift will (be) up here training every day for the next two weeks on all of those tactics that was given out,” he said. “Each one has a different job. These guys that are testing for officers positions are learning command: how to operate the boards, talking to their crews on radio, making sure they have common communications, making sure we’re on the right frequencies, all of that stuff that goes into our everyday training.”
The MLFD B Shift also took part in a training burn Saturday north of Moses Pointe. That was on a structure that a landowner donated to Grant County Fire District 5 to do live fire training on, according to GCFD 5 Battalion Chief Sean Killion. That allowed MLFD firefighters to get training evolutions, or hands-on drills, alongside an agency they cross paths with a lot. The two departments have a good working relationship, Burns said.
“We’re going to start doing some more training with them and using them on our calls, and we’re going to be used on their calls to help better the service for the public,” he said. “That’s the big push between District 5 and the City of Moses Lake .”
Volunteerism is down recently, and Burns’ own shift is short three people, he said, which means other agencies are going to have to pitch in on big calls.
“It makes it tough, depending on nine to 15 guys per day,” Burns said. “A structure fire requires 18 people, so we don’t even meet that.”
At the same time, Burns said, MLFD has the only hazmat team in Grant County, which means they’re called in to assist other agencies. Moses Lake also has the only technical rescue team on the east side of the county, which makes them invaluable for specialized work involving rope rescues.
All of which means that the agencies are going to need to do a lot of training together, Burns said.
“That’s the hard part, getting that training designated where they can get there, because they’re mostly volunteers, and then having enough staff to cover calls and everything else,” he said.
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