April 20, 2016 (Photo Album) - Firefighters were burning down the house as witnessed by travelers on US 84 in Joaquin on Saturday, April 16, 2016 as the event provided a critical training opportunity for area firemen.
The Joaquin Volunteer Fire Department were host to the fire training session and 12 firemen received hands on experiences to better hone their skills as fire fighters.
Firemen from Joaquin, Tenaha, and DeSoto Fire District 1 participated in the training. The three departments currently work under an automatic mutual aid agreement which was instated between Joaquin and DeSoto in November of 2015 and between Joaquin and Tenaha since January of 2016.
During the training, the firemen talked about the automatic mutual aid agreements. Joaquin Fireman and training officer Stephen Ewing said, "We are going to be responding with each other on various structure fires, it's good for us to learn to work together."
Ewing gave a run down on the training the firemen received which included pump operations training, two-man searches, and positive pressure ventilation.
"We took two-man search teams in [the building] and showed them how to do a search pattern to thoroughly search a house like this. When [searching] they are in full bunker gear and SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus) so they are learning how to work wearing that equipment. They learned how to search and find somebody that may still be in that building."
The house was prepared for the search drills by lighting a barrel filled with hay to fill the house with smoke without actually setting it on fire. The teams went in two men at a time and learned how best to search an unknown area as quickly and safely as possible without getting turned around and lost.
The next step of training included a demonstration of positive pressure ventilation which is a procedure used often by firemen to clear smoke out of a house. Essentially air is forced into a structure at one location and another opening which ideally is smaller than the entrance is opened. The positive pressure pulls the smoke and heat and moves it out of the controlled ventilation exit with the air being forced through the front ventilation opening.
The final stage of training was setting the house on fire. Once the house was fully engulfed, junior fire fighters received training with fire streams.
Ewing explained the importance of fire streams and said concerning this case, "We've got to be ready to protect exposures. This house is gone but we can save the one next to it."
Ewing was pleased with the turnout from the departments and appreciates the cooperativeness of all the teams.
The house belonged to Mrs. Bill Roberts. Her family who includes son-in-law Jerry Green and his son Kade, and cousins Cail and Blake Roberts all donated the house for the training exercise.
Following the training, the firemen enjoyed burgers freshly prepared by Steve Cockrell.
