Plymouth House Burn

This Saturday we had an opportunity to assist Plymouth with a control burn on a house. They also opened it up to the Fire class that is just about done. We went out to help burn and help the fire class. 

This is the before around the house.

The class had already done some work ventilating the roof in a class earlier that week. The idea is you keep the house so the fire chimneys straight up and the house will collapse inward on itself. 

Taylor, Chris and Spencer

Donated houses like this are AWESOME and a great learning tool!

The basement was full of old tree branches theyd stuffed inside to help burn

They piled all kinds of tree branches and things inside the place too. 

We hooked a hydrant and had an ambulance on stand by just in case

Trica and I

Todd doing a briefing discussing what they will be learning for the day

It was kind of fun that we just got to stand back and help instruct and take pictures. We didnt have to be complete grunts for once haha

They broke the class into teams. Dad took one, Todd took one and Bob took one and they headed into the house.

One thing youre taught is how to get through a wall between studs. The idea is that you and your partner are trapped in a room. Fire is coming at you. You have a very limited time if you want to survive to sound the wall, make a hole big enough between the studs (a whopping 16 inches) and fit yourself through it. You leave your mask on, take your tank off (while still attached) slide it through the wall and then you crawl through. Easier said than done! Plus anyone with shoulders, hips or boobs has to try and go through on their side because 16 inches really isnt that wide!!!

and the super awesome thing about old homes is the majority of the walls have a layer of sheet rock and then lathen plaster in the next layer. You have to take turns with your teammate (because you wear out fast) and save both your lives.

There were 3 groups doing this exercise at once in different parts of the house

We discussed some different techniques and ideas on how to accomplish it.

This group had wallpaper, sheet rock, lathen plaster, particle board with wallpaper on it and then paneling to get through.

Her helmet came off coming through all the layers

Next we taught how to pull ceiling 

Chris and Taylor

Looking through the ceiling and false ceiling to the attic.

One thing about old homes is they usually have several layers of construction on top of the original layers!

Taylor cutting a hole in the upstairs to access the open attic space

Dad crawling through the hole

We found two of these very old Halon Fire Extinguishers built into the roof. They were in a system ran off a 3 volt battery. When a temp is reached the glass breaks and it dispenses halon out. 

The attic

Ventilating the floor into the lower ceiling

Made it through the top layer of wood to find more plywood

Under the plywood was old tongue and groove. Then another layer of wood.. and a false ceiling.. and finally they made access into the lower floor.

Also window breaking was a skill taught. Its rare someone just lets you bust windows out of a house for practice!

Chris got a little excited and busted an axe on the floor lol!!

At this point its HUMID and sprinkling. We need to cut down a huge pine tree next to the house because there is no way we can not burn it and if it did then it would spread to the next tree and to the next house. Everyone took off their gear and tried to cool down some. It was so muggy.

Spencers job was to cut down the tree

Then the boys started sawyering.. while Tiffany and I ran on a pee break to the station haha! 

Taylor

Chris and Spencer

The class was supposed to drag off all the branches and pile them around and inside the house so there was less mess for the homeowner to clean u. I couldn't just stand and watch so I helped drag trees

At this point its sprinkling pretty good on us. Its muggy and hot and humid and our clothes are getting soaked. 

Dad and I

Trees piled in and around the house

Todd and I 

There were only 3 allowed in the house to light the fire. I was in as the official picture taker. It was raining pretty good by now. The humidity was crazy. Plus we had wet tree branches inside a confined space. It was a pain in the butt to get it to light!! It took forever to get some decent flames. 

We lit in 3 rooms at once.

Thankfully there were several boxes of paper in the house. Even the paper had a hard time wanting to light.

Finally we started to get some flame spread up the wall.

And this is how fire spreads

The class was outside until we got a decent fire going and then we let them stand in the doorway so they could see part of the fire behavior

Only 5 were allowed inside at a time including the lighters and me. Todd was the safety officer at the door and he kept count with his hands in the air so everyone knew how many were inside.

Standing in the doorway watching fire roll across the ceiling. I love it!

This is as I was leaving the house letting the fire roll over the top of the doorway so I could get some good pictures. The fire is craving oxygen so its coming out the doorway trying to gobble up as much as it can.

While the fire is still building we let everyone stay pretty close so they could watch how it works.

We finally got some decent flame through the vented holes

We had to keep water on the pine tree we left so it didnt catch on fire from all the heat. Its still raining good on us.

The man I married..

and then the house took off good!

Roof starting to vent before it collapses on the backside

and there goes the roof

You can see the smoke curling around through the roof 

Once it started good we made the class move back to the safety zone which is 1 1/2 times the height of the building. Thats where youre safe from a collapse zone.

The fire class

The hubs and I with our Rtic cups still full of ice! We took this for our friends business and put it on their page 

Tiffany (dads secretary) and Dad

Trica, Tiff and I

 I have a problem and must have a crooked head or something because my helmets never sit on my head straight.

Its still raining on us and humid. You can see the steam on the ground. Our turnouts were steaming. We needed to put water on the roof to cool down some of the fire because just past the guys with the hose is the fire trucks and power lines. We needed to keep the house burning but make sure we didnt melt any trucks or power lines.

Taylor with steam rolling off his shoulders

The homeowners and their families were all there in lawn chairs with umbrellas watching. They were super sweet and brought us cookies and donuts! It was great because I was starving. Started at 9 am and finished about 1pm. We were soaked from head to toe, muddy, sooty and filthy! We had so much fun!