The Perry Fire Department recently conducted a training burn of a home.

Fire Chief Grason Hill says there are a few reasons why the fire department does these training burns. One reason is to help a homeowner remove their home, as well as a chance to educate the homeowners.

“We will start a fire, wait for a flashover, wait for the smoke to come down, and you can just literally watch the smoke lowering in a room, and then we’ll put it out. And then we will bring the family in (and) friends in and they can see what we’re talking about. So that’s why we always train people to stay low when there’s a fire. You always train your kids to stay low at night (when there’s a fire) because the smoke comes from the ceiling down, and the lower to the floor you stay, the safer you are.”  

Chief Hill explains another reason is to work on efficiencies within their own department.

“From everything, from the truck drivers, to the pump operators, they need a refreshers and learn how to operate the pumps and the amount of the amount of pressure they are putting out. It’s good for new firefighters to take them inside where we show them what a flashover is and how to stay safe.”

Hill adds the fire department also provides controlled burns with one coming up soon. He says the city of Perry acquired a property and demolished the home into a pile and the fire department will burn it into the basement to help the city to clean up the property.