Kelso, WA- Firefighters from Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue will be conducting a live house burn training event this Saturday from 9 am to 3 pm at 230 Hageman Rd.  The purpose of the training is for newly trained firefighters to experience smoke conditions and heat as found in a real house fire.   Fire crews will practice fire resource management, hose handling techniques, and fire suppression repetitions.  Fireground instructors will use pallets and hay to ignite rooms in the house and allow fire teams to enter the house and extinguish the fire.  This will take place multiple times until all teams are through the training.  The home will then be fully ignited and monitored until it is completely burned.  The event is open to the media for viewing; a designated media staging area will be provided and they will be briefed at 9:30 am.   

The house used for the training has been donated by the Higgins family.  The Higgins family needed the house removed from their property and it met the safety standard requirements needed to train on.  Some of those requirements include asbestos abatement, ensuring the house is structurally sound, and there is ample access and egress.  Washington State requires firefighters to perform live-fire training at least every three years to remain compliant.  Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue recently built a live-fire training prop at their headquarters station on Vine street to accommodate this requirement in the event a donated house is not available or doesn’t meet the safety parameters needed to train on it.  

For more information about donating a home for training contact Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue at (360) 578-5218.