Contributed photo by Chattanooga Fire Department / A Chattanooga Fire Department recruit and member of the department's training staff talk at the site where training is planned this week.Where's the fire?
In East Brainerd this week, Chattanooga fire recruits will undergo training during a burn at a house in the 8100 block of Bermerwood Drive, a little north of Heritage Park off of Jenkins Road, according to a statement from the Chattanooga Fire Department.
Live drills will be conducted Tuesday through Friday, officials said.
The house located at 8199 Bermerwood Drive "will be prepped and the situation will be controlled," fire officials said. "Department staff will practice extinguishing fires in different rooms. A whole-house burn will follow."
The home was offered to the fire department for training purposes which Fire Chief Phil Hyman said is an excellent way for fire recruits to hone their skills.
The training is the culmination of training for 23 cadets, who have been taking part in a six-month academy, officials said in the statement.
"We're trying to prepare them as much as we can for the realities they're going to be faced with when they come out of the academy and go into a company," Hyman said.
"They'll run fire attacks, stretching hose lines. They'll do search and rescue drills and ventilation drills, cutting holes in the roof to let smoke and heat out. We're really giving the academy taste of what a house fire is like in the beginning so that the first time they got out on a house fire when they graduate from the academy, they'll be ready," he said.
Prior to the house burn, the home was used to teach recruits different life-saving tactics, according to fire officials.
Cadets had to rescue themselves when they became trapped or entangled, disoriented or lost, officials said. They faced multiple obstacles and worked their way through all of them.
After the house burn exercise, members of the academy will also take part in hazmat training and vehicle extrication training before graduation in October, officials said.