On Thursday October 20th the Maynard, Ma Fire Department held a live burn drill with the Acton and Stow Fire Departments.
Now let me explain how this comes about and what happens for those not in the fire service. Some of the following images will strike some as odd.
A home owner sometimes will donate their home or property to the local fire department. This can be very helpful for the most realistic training evolutions in the safest settings possible.
The first few days are search and rescue training as well as rit training using a smoke machine to replicate smoke conditions.
When the fire department is done with those evolutions they start to have live fires in the structure. These fires help firefighters do more search and rescue and RIT training under live fire conditions. Truck companies will vent the roof while engine companies go in and extinguish the fire while searches will be done for possible victims.
Once all of the live fire evolutions are completed they allow the house to catch fire and burn.
This has to be approved by the Department of Environmental Protection and requires lots of time and paperwork. This is not a regular event. They are actually few and far between and not done in suburban area.
Hose lines are put in place to prevent the fire from extending to any other exposures.
The last images are a tradition in the fire service and depict department members doing group photos. The images show the pride, camaraderie and brotherhood that are in the fire service after a few hard strenuous days of training.
Its real life fire training like this that helps firefighters be the best at what they do!
I'd like to thank the Maynard Fire Department for their hospitality and allowing me to document their training