This old house was situated at the rear of an up-and-coming subdivision and fated to be demolished. The owners were kind enough to let the fire department use it for live burn training. We had three weeks of "smokehouse drills" where we burned hay and pallets inside the house to create a smoky environment for search and rescue and hose handling practice, but did not actually torch the structure itself.

The house was quite old, but very well-built. Underneath the ceiling tiles we were amazed to find beautiful tongue-in-groove hardwood planks. Although it was only one story, the several small rooms within offered a decent challenge for search and rescue teams.

Chad Hunning works hard to break up pallets to be burned as Jason Mills looks on.	Charles Reavis and Bob Wall take a break from preparations for the burn.	We managed to create quite a mess in the air, but surprisingly there were no complaints that we know of from nearby residents.
Although the paid staff had to remain available in case we had any calls, they were still more than happy to participate in training. (C-shift: Chris Dawson, Mark Coats, Alan Capps)	Jimmy Ragan and Mike McDougald take a breather.