Ventilation and Egress Training, and an Investigation, too.

On the evening of Monday, May 21st, for our training night, we loaded crews into Engine 4-9-1, Engine 4-9-2, and Tanker 4-9 and headed to a house on Springville Road in Salisbury Township. \
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The house is located across the street from the Welsh Mountain Home. The Home owns the house, which will be soon razed so that the Home can commence new construction for their expansion project. They have graciously allowed us to use this structure for training until it is demolished. We would like to thank the Welsh Mountain Home for extending this opportunity to us to train on the structure.\
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This evening’s training focused on ventilating the roof, which in a fire, is vital to allow hot air, smoke & gases to escape the structure, and make it safer for the firefighters, and any victims inside of the structure. Also focused on was emergency egress practice. In the event of a real fire, if the firefighters’ escape route is blocked, it is vital for interior crews to be proficient in breeching walls in order to escape safely. An added twist to this evening’s training was that the house is an old log home, so crews had a little more of a challenge to escape. Some of the newer firefighters were also given a brief lesson on how to properly raise, lower and hold an extension ladder.\
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The firefighters on site were split into two groups; the first group practiced ventilating the roof, while the second group went inside to “escape”. When the respective evolutions were completed to satisfaction, the groups switched.\
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Later that evening, after units returned to station and while some members were still at the station, there was a call placed to the station by a resident of the Glen Oaks Development stating that there was a strong smell of someone burning trash in the neighborhood, and they were wondering if we could check it out. Engine 4-9-1 went enroute with 5 firefighters to investigate. Engine 1, along with the Fire Chief, Deputy Fire Chief, Fire Police Captain, and the Fire Police Lieutenant scoured the development and the surrounding neighborhoods. There was a definite odor of something burning, but no active fire was located. The call was then marked as unfounded, and units went available.