OCRegister.com: “Anaheim fire recruits get real-life experience using vacant buildings set for demolition”
Apr. 16, 2018
By Jeff Gritchen | jgritchen@scng.com | Orange County Register
PUBLISHED: April 16, 2018 at 6:15 pm | UPDATED: April 16, 2018 at 9:29 pm
Anaheim fire recruits go through three simulations on separate vacant buildings on Lincoln Avenue in Anaheim on Monday, Apr 16, 2018. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Anaheim fire recruits got some real-world experience attacking a simulated blaze in three vacant buildings along Lincoln Avenue on Monday.
The 16 recruits with the city’s 2018 class do most of their training at the North Net Training Center near Angel Stadium. Developer Brandywine Homes offered the vacant buildings that will soon be torn down.
Training on location let the recruits “get real-life experience in a real building they’ve never seen before, which is the reality of what we do as firefighters” Capt. Matthew Gordon said. Most of the first four weeks of the academy, he said, involved learning the basics.
The vacant buildings – a wig shop, an office building and a church – sit on 1.29 acres of land that’s slated to become a gated community with 22 three-story townhomes. Construction, set to begin in May, is expected to be finished by January.
The church and office building were flooded with fog from a machine as the recruits practiced attacking a fire. They practiced vertical ventilating by cutting holes in the roof off the wig shop.
Alex Hernandez, president of Brandywine Homes’ homebuilding division, said the Fire Department approached the company asking to do some exercises while they are waiting for their permits.
“The city always helps us out” Hernandez said. ”We are gonna help them out whenever we can.”
