Our last step in the fire academy was to actually fight a real fire in a house. This exercise is commonly referred to as a “Burn to Learn”. Because the Colton’s Burn to Learn house burned down prematurely, we were invited to participate in Canby’s (a neigboring department) exercise. Here we are at Canby’s station getting checked out before suiting up, and Brad & Jodi ariving on the burn site.
Out of all the firefighters on scene, Jodi was the first to go in on the hose! We went in the house in teams of 3, so Colton Firefighters Chris and Vern were close to back her up. We started by venting the windows, then entering the front door and working our way back to the fire using the attack line. Once at the room, Jodi and Chris had to make their way in by crawling on the floor in order to get close enough to the fire and put it out.
Brad went in on the attack line with several of the Canby firefighters
Brad and Jodi had a second opportunity to go in, this time together on the back up hose. Then we moved outside to ‘rehab’, and took some great pictures….
Then we moved to covering exposures – the homeowners were hoping to save the surrounding trees, and we were able to do so!
And the house is nearly down..
The Colton Crew (left to right) top row: Jodi, Vern, Tim, Brad, Doug, Miranda. Bottom row: Chris & Gary (the Chief)
Oh yeah, Brad found out while on site that Canby wouln’t allow goatees on their firefighters – so he had to shave his if he wanted to go in! Thankfully the resuce unit had a portable razor!
