Six area fire departments gathered at an abandoned farm site southeast of Delavan on Saturday, Sept. 20 for training on how to fight a house fire. With safety instructors on hand, teams of three to five firefighters would enter the burning building to work on extinguishing the flames inside one of the rooms. The training day gave the departments a chance to work together and refine their communication skills. However, the main focus of the day was making sure things were done correctly and in a safe manner.

An old deteriorating house was the only building left standing on a farm site in Barber Township. But the house, which hadn’t been lived in for a number of years, still proved to be valuable when it was used to train area firefighters on how to fight a house fire.

On Sept. 20, members of fire departments from Delavan, Easton, Minnesota Lake, Frost, Blue Earth and Winnebago gathered at the site located one mile south of Highway 109 between Delavan and Easton to receive training on fighting a house fire.

Ryan Bromeland, a safety officer and lieutenant with the Delavan Fire Department, shares one of the goals of the event was to help the firefighters keep up on their training for going into a fire.

“It also provided us with the opportunity to work with other mutual aid fire departments and to practice our pump operations,” Bromeland says. “The main focus was how to do things correctly and safely.”

Preparing for the practice burn was a large part of the process.

“It is not as simple as just going and burning a house,” Bromeland explains. “The house has to be inspected and any asbestos has to be removed. There also cannot be any lead paint in the structure.”

It is only after the permits are all in hand that the burn can be scheduled.

According to Bromeland, a total of five different fires were started during the exercise.

“Each fire was in a different room,” he says. “Five different entry teams, made up of three to five firefighters, would enter the house to battle the flames.”

Bromeland shares a typical team of four people going into a room would be made up of a nozzle guy, a tool guy and two people tending the hose.

“This was a level 2 burn,” Bromeland remarks. “Because this was a training event, each evolution also had an instructor with them to make sure nothing bad happens. They are there to oversee what is happening.”

Dry hay bales and wooden pallets are used to get the flames going. The use of an accelerant is not allowed.

Once the fifth and final group completed their training the house was left to burn and the firefighters kept the area around the house wetted down to keep the nearby fields of corn from starting on fire.

Bromeland notes the chance to do these kinds of training burns does not come up that often.

“It is kind of rare,” he admits. “So we appreciated the opportunity we had to practice and improve our skills.”