PIERRE, S.D. – Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And that will certainly be the case this weekend in northeast Pierre.
The Pierre Volunteer Fire Department will utilize an abandoned home located at 2301 East Hwy 14 for training this Saturday. The Fire Department plans to set controlled fires within the structure to provide live fire experience for its members.
“This is an excellent opportunity for our volunteers to gain live fire experience,” said Fire Chief Ian Paul. “It’s one thing to read about fire behavior in a text book. It’s entirely different to interact with it in a live fire environment.”
The use of the abandoned home was donated by Mark and Glennis Zarecky. The exercise is expected to begin around 10:00 a.m. and wrap up about 3:00 p.m.
Firefighters will continue to use the structure for various training activities throughout the next month and intend to burn the structure to the ground sometime in May.
Pierre’s Volunteer Fire Department has 65 members. In 2015, the group completed more than 5,000 hours of training and responded to more than 190 incidents.
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