The Broken Bow Volunteer Fire Department will conduct a controlled training burn in north Broken Bow Tuesday evening, September 16. The location of the burn is just north of 1216 North 13th Avenue.
Broken Bow Emergency Services Department Head Dave Baltz discussed the purpose of the burn with KCNI/KBBN.
“First and foremost, we always focus on safety,” said Baltz. However, providing fire crews first-hand experience with how fires behave is an important element of the exercise.
“Actually getting into a training burn, we can talk a lot on tabletops and we can do props at the station and stuff,” continued Baltz. “But some big things that we like to hit is watching the whole growth from where the fire starts until it gets big and seeing how different ventilation tactics, kind of different air flow, air paths coming in, kind of changed the way things grow. Give us the opportunity to get out and pull some hose off of trucks, use the pumps, just get some guys some good hands-on training.”
The training activity has been in the works for nearly a year, from when the property owners first reached out to the fire department, according to Baltz. Getting through the paperwork required for the burn has taken up much of the last two months, and a cleanup around the site to ensure the safety of the firefighters during the training has been ongoing leading up to the burn.
Getting out and conducting training in public is a good opportunity for both the firefighters and the public. The public is welcome to observe, so long as they stay outside of controlled areas and reasonable safety precautions are taken.
“It’s always good to go out and see what your fire department’s doing, right?” Baltz said. “It’s something we don’t get an opportunity to do a whole lot is actually get a live structure.”
The Broken Bow Fire Department expects to start the live fire training exercise around 7:00 PM Tuesday evening. Burn activities should be complete by 9:30, though the department expects to stay on-site until they are confident there is no more possibility of renewed flames.
