On Monday, September 27th, after a great meal prepared by the staff at Moon Beach Camp, we had our second training burn of the year.  The building was an old double mobile home that had been used in the past as quarters for the summer staff.  We didn't do very many interior "attacks" because of the instability of the building but we did receive some great training!!

Exterior picture of the front of the building	Our fire starter of the evening was Steve Kasprzyk
Watching as the fire progresses	Firefighter waiting for the signal to go in and attack the fire
Looking in thru a window as the fire reaches flashover	Building fully involved
Just before the original roof caved in	If you look closely in the right window, you will see the original roof hanging down inside of the building.  You can see that the added on roof is still intact
This is a shot just before the building collapsed	Just after the walls have collapsed

On Monday, September 13th, we had the rare opportunity of having a house to burn down.  This is an excellent and safe way of training our firefighters how to handle an actual structure fire situation.  Arbor Vitae fire department had one NEW trainee and Plum Lake fire department had 2 NEW trainees that took part in the burn.  These pictures will also give you a very good idea at just how fast fire can take over your home. 

This was a three bedroom structure with the living room and a bedroom on the front side of the home.	For our burn this evening, Assistant Chief, Tom Ebert was our fire starter.
This photo was taken only 30 seconds after the cardboard was initially lit.

These next photos I felt should be a larger size to better give you a good look at what was going on.



This photo was taken approximately 2 minutes after the cardboard was lit.  You can see how the flames are already starting to spread across the ceiling.



This photo is about 3 minutes into the burn.  You can see how the flames are spreading across the ceiling and getting near the flashover point.  Flashover is a term that is used for when materials and gases at the ceiling level are heated to the point where the entire ceiling "flashes over".



This photo was taken after the training burns were finished and the fire was "let go" to consume the structure.  At this point the fire was just breaking through the roof.



This is some time into the burn.  You can see how the entire structure is "fully involved".  With todays modern equipment and technology, even this fire could be knocked down in a matter of minutes.  You can see how important it is for our department to continue to "update" our equipment, not only for effective firefighting but more importantly for firefighter safety.



At this point the roof has completely collapsed and the walls are ready to cave in.  You can see how the fire has died down at this point because most of the material has been consumed.



Once again you can see how the walls are ready to cave in.



Just an interesting shot of how the flames were reflecting off of the side of Engine 1.



The walls are completely gone and all that remains is the water heater standing in the center of the picture.  You can see the green/blue flames from the metals that are mixing with the fire.

Be sure to check back soon as we have been very fortunate this year and have another structure to burn down on our next training night, September 27th.