The Carroll Fire Department was kept busy this weekend, but according to Chief Greg Schreck, there was never any danger to a resident’s safety or property as the team culminated their valuable training with a controlled burn. On Saturday morning at about 7 a.m., a house located just north of the clubhouse on the Municipal Golf Course was used for the final time. The city had worked on locating someone interested in purchasing and relocating the home to no avail, so it was determined that it would be used by the fire department. It has served them well over the past year for organized instruction in many ways including on victim search and rescue by utilizing a smoke generator to create zero visibility conditions. In that training, firefighters used a predetermined search pattern and thermal imaging to locate and rescue a mannequin from the home. They also practiced rescuing a fellow firefighter who had become trapped as well as smoke ventilation and hose line extension training. During the last week of training, live fire situations were staged in the house under controlled situations to allow firefighters to enter and extinguish flames. The culmination was Saturday’s controlled burn of the entire structure. During the burn, firefighters were able to observe the rapid development of smoke and fire intensity as it traveled throughout the house. The burn was completed following the rules established by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Air Quality Division for Fire Department Training Fires. This is the first controlled burn of this type done by the department in the past 10 years.
