Lake City, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Firefighters in Northeast Arkansas came to Lake City Monday night to learn more about fire dynamics and experience high-heat scenarios inside a mobile burn facility.
On Dec. 29, the Lake City Fire Department hosted a regional training event in partnership with the Arkansas Fire Academy, where firefighters learned about fire behavior and the development of fire inside a structure. Some of the cities that participated included Monette, Bay, Brookland, and Manila.
Fire Chief Hunter Timms said the fire academy was able to purchase a mobile burn facility through a grant to give more rural departments access to a training facility that they normally wouldn’t have access to.
“You’re able to do live fire scenarios in there, like actually lighting fires and feeling what the real heat feels like,” said Timms. “Normally, you only get that opportunity whenever you’re inside a house fire, and those don’t normally come up very often. It’s nice to have our newer guys experience what the inside of a house fire is actually like,”
The department had the facility for a month and was determining how to use it properly. That’s when Timms said the idea of the training event came about.
Instructors from the Jonesboro Fire Department were at the event and helped demonstrate concepts about fire dynamics.
“They have this smaller prop, like it’s a smaller house that you can see through, probably four by four foot tall, and it has different areas where you can show in person what happens when you open up a window or a door, how the fire behaves, and how the fire moves through a structure,” Timms explained.
This allowed the firefighters to see how to control a fire on a smaller scale, then naturally apply what they learned there to a much larger fire with the burn facility, according to Timms. Especially for volunteer fire departments, he feels this is very important.
“We have to leave our house, and we have to go to the station, get dressed, get in trucks, then head out. We’re already behind the ball on fire growth for modern structures. So, understanding how the fire impacts different components, then also the smoke conditions inside the house, the way the fire moves inside a structure. You got to know your enemy. That’s the biggest key,” he said.
The event ended with a live fire in the burn facility.
Timms said they are working to make this an annual event and are trying to get a contract after the first of the year from the fire academy. He added that it is supposed to be on a five-year basis.
“I hope within those five years, we can prove that, ‘Hey. We’re not just using it.’ I mean, not that it’s a bad thing to use it for just you, but we’re trying to grow this area too and provide more of a service and education to help grow the fire service here in Northeast Arkansas.”
