Firefighters drill regularly so they are ready to douse a blaze when it occurs at someone’s home, business or some other building, but rarely do they have an opportunity to practice on a real house against a purposely set fire.
Waukegan Fire Chief Gregg Paiser said the opportunity to practice on a live fire arose approximately two years ago when the owner of an old home contacted the department about a donation. It took two years to get the necessary approval from the required regulatory agencies.
“It’s been at least five years,” Paiser said. “In Waukegan, we have a lot of density. The homes are close together. We wouldn’t want to use one there. It could spread to another home in the neighborhood. This house is in a rural area.”
Approximately 50 Waukegan firefighters spent much of Thursday going room to room lighting fires in an abandoned home and then extinguishing them in a rural part of Waukegan Road just west of Milwaukee Avenue, simulating real-life experiences.
Before the day was over, Todd Zupec, the city’s fire marshal, said the house would be burned to the ground. A fire was started in each of the houses’ eight rooms. The firefighters worked in small teams doing specific jobs both inside and outside the building.
“This is valuable training,” he said. “You can’t do this with a simulation. Any time we get the chance, we want to do it. They see what real life is like, and what the fire is going to throw at them.”
“This is the single best way to learn how to do it,” Paiser added.
Paiser said one team is responsible for ventilating the building — to let the smoke and heat escape — to reduce the danger to firefighters and anyone still inside. The attack team deals with the fire itself, while a third group observes and a fourth is dedicated to search and rescue.
“They look for people who may still be in the home,” he said. “They get down on their hands and knees. They look under the beds. They look in all the closets. They make sure no one is in the building.”
While two teams brought hoses into the house — one is a backup if a second is needed — a separate group of firefighters put a stepladder beside the two-story building and added an extension. Then a third ladder was lifted to the person on the stepladder who attached it to the peak of the roof.
“See the hooks,” Paiser said of the third ladder being lifted into position. “It hooks to the top of the roof. When we’re working on the roof, that’s the one we use when we put a hole in the roof.”
Zupec said all the teams are working simultaneously, as they form the overall unit necessary to both keep everyone safe and douse the fire as quickly as possible. Firefighting is a complete team effort.
“Every person is responsible for a specific duty, and everyone works together,” he said. “We do everything with safety in mind. If we lose a building, we lose a building. Rescuing people and saving lives is the most important thing we do.”
Each firefighter enters the building with an air pack on their back which is designed to provide fresh air for them to breathe for approximately 20 minutes. Paiser said if a sound signal goes off outside the structure, it means the person must exit the house and be replaced.
As teams took hoses into the house, they kept the front door closed as much as possible. Lt. Steve Davis, a 25-year veteran of the department, said it was done to keep as much oxygen out of the building as possible.
“Oxygen is really combustible,” he said. “We don’t want to help feed the fire in the house.”
Zupec said firefighters from Gurnee and Libertyville also participated in the training.
