College Station fire department trains in soon-to-be-demolished home

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – The College Station Fire Department is getting some unique hands-on training this week, working at a vacant home near Holleman Drive.

KBTX was there at 1106 South Carolina Street and got to speak to firefighters about their training.

Firefighters are training Tuesday through Thursday 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., practicing live scenarios like rescuing a hidden dummy trapped inside.

Inside the home, there was theatrical smoke, fake fire sounds, and artificial cries of a victim. The firefighters were able to make the most of the empty house, bringing in equipment like thermal imaging cameras to identify the location of the fire or victims.

Captain Stuart Marrs, says firefighters get to experience those first few hectic minutes of a fire as if it were real.

“What we’re practicing is the first crew has a lot of decisions they need to make, they’ve got to decide if it’s safe to go in the house or if they need to fight the fire from the outside before they go in, so that’s the first decision. Then they’ve got to decide and get information about any possible victims so they have to talk to bystanders and the people who called 9-1-1 and see if there’s anybody still trapped in the house. Then they make entry into the house and they search the entire house, they search all the rooms in the house systematically so they can locate any victims,” said Marrs. “The firefighters really have to listen and pay attention and communicate with one another so they can go through all these steps that they have to do in the first three or four minutes of a fire.”

College Station Fire Chief, Richard Mann says they’re using the abandoned home to practice a new program.

“We have more ambulances now so what we are doing is we’re actually merging the initial ambulance and fire engine company into one fire-attack team to give them greater initial attack capabilities. So this is kind of a new process and so were just working through all the logistics of that and making sure those teams work together and it’s a new process and a great opportunity to put it into some realistic training,” said Mann.

In a particular scenario, firefighters simulated a collapse where two victims were stuck on separate ends of the house, where they had to locate and rescue both victims.

Firefighter and paramedic, Marshall Wood, says getting this hands-on training will prepare him for a real-life scenario.

“It’s good to get out here and simulate with the smoke, so we’re prepared for whenever the real thing happens,” said Wood.

College Station Fire says every member of the department will train in the home by the time the training ends on Thursday.

The home where the training took place will soon be demolished. Elder Aid will be using the property to build low-income senior housing.