Great Northern Land Co. Special Events

 

 

October 23, 2008

Don't demolish that old home, send it up in smoke

By KATIE ZEMTSEFF
Journal Staff Reporter

Photos courtesy of Seattle Fire Department [enlarge]

Training in a burning house gives firefighters experience they can’t get with simulators.

BEFORE DEMOLISHING or deconstructing a building, you might want to call the Seattle fire or police departments; not to double-check safety standards, but to give firefighters and the SWAT team a place to train.

That's what Ed Gallaudet, general manager of Seattle home developer Great Northern Land Co., has done for the last two years. It began when a fire department representative asked Gallaudet if he was interested in letting a house awaiting demolition be used for training. Since then, the fire department has trained on three of Gallaudet's properties awaiting demolition, while the SWAT team has used one.

The fire department does “destructive training” on these buildings; it cuts holes in roofs, breaks through doors and simulates fire conditions. Crews use chain saws, sledgehammers and other tools. “You wouldn't want to try and put the house back together,” Gallaudet said.

The SWAT team is experimenting with new saws and hydraulic tools. It practices breaching doors and windows, and does explosives training, but often it's trying to do the least amount of damage possible in preparation for a real emergency situation.

Gallaudet says it makes sense to allow training in his soon-to-be-demolished buildings because it creates another use for the building. He usually hires ReStore to salvage usable materials from the buildings before trainees use them.

“We're going to tear them down anyway, so we don't associate any value with them,” Gallaudet said. “Mostly, it helps them train and doesn't negatively impact us, so why not help them out if we can?”

A tax write-off

[enlarge]

Firefighters learn that older homes are built different than newer ones and behave in different ways during a fire.

Gallaudet says the fire department measures what the house was worth before compared with what it is worth after training, and the difference becomes a tax donation. Because the buildings aren't pristine when fire or SWAT teams go into it, Gallaudet says the tax write-off doesn't usually amount to much. But it's worth it, he said, to provide team members with a source of training, and it's fun to watch them in action.

Deputy Chief Jesse Youngs is chief of training for the Seattle Fire Department. He said the department uses between 20 and 30 buildings in the city for training every year. Most often, buildings are used for ongoing training by the operations division, representing about 800 firefighters in the city. The fire department has been practicing on buildings for at least 40 years.

Some of the buildings are used to train new hires. There are two training classes a year, each with about 24 new recruits in them.

Training on actual structures is invaluable, Youngs said, because it forces firefighters to react to floor plans they don't know in pitch-black and smoky conditions, just like they would in a real emergency. “The great thing about that is they typically haven't been in that house and got the floor plan memorized,” he said.

Real buildings also let crews see the variances in construction techniques. Today's buildings are made of lightweight materials while older buildings are much heavier and beefier. Both structure types behave differently, so Youngs said it is important for firefighters to experience the differences.

“That's probably one of the biggest benefits,” he said. “Cutting into a house, tearing into it lets you see how it's built so when you run across it, you have some idea of what you're up against.”

Twice a year, once for each training class, the fire department burns a house for practice. Youngs said there is fire behavior that cannot be simulated in other environments, so it is important to get firefighters in the real thing.

When oxygen levels change in a building, heat rises, pushing black smoke to the floor. “It's hard to demonstrate that in a simulator,” Youngs said.

Gallaudet says none of his houses has been burned, but he's excitedly awaiting the day when it will happen. “I'd like to see them do that.”

Katie Zemtseff can be reached by email or by phone at (206) 622-8272.