It doesn't get much better than this for real-world training. 30 volunteer firefighters smashed, burned and sprayed a real house in a simulated emergency. It and the old Extraco Bank building in Troy got donated so these small volunteer departments could get some rare practice. The departments of Troy, Rogers and Little River all participated in today's drill.
"Normally you have training in like fire facilities made for burning, and there's not really a real world experience, where you can come into a house like this, where it's actually some body's house," said Troy Volunteer Fire Department Assistant Chief Justin Jackson.
17-year old Michael Richardson's volunteer fire fighting experience with troy VFD can be boiled down to 4 months and a couple of grass fires. This is invaluable.
"I feel a lot better now. I mean I feel that I could actually go in there and do it now. You could save someone's life, huh? Yeah," said Richardson.
There's no training facility in Bell county. These shops can go up to a year without a house fire to keep them sharp, and these homes weren't going to last long anyways. I-35's expanding lanes right through part of Troy, and a stretch of houses and businesses will soon be highway. So the fire departments thought if the houses are already getting destroyed, why not they help. The state agreed and gave them the keys and a license to burn.
"It's a once in a life time deal, it's very seldom someone donates a house for us to train on," said Asst. Chief Jackson.
Reporter/Photographer: Joshua Skurnik
