Firefighters train on burning structure

Firefighters take live-fire training. photo provided At first glance, it seems a strange complaint coming from Sisters Assistant Fire Chief Ken Enoch: "We don't seem to get enough fires anymore."

Improvements in safety and in home construction have reduced structure fires in Sisters -- obviously a good thing. But firefighters learn best by actually fighting fire and live fire training is hard to come by.

That's why Sisters and Black Butte Ranch (BBR) firefighters jumped at the chance to "burn-to-learn" on a house off Camp Polk Road north of Sisters on Saturday, November 20.

"Actually, we drilled on the place for four weeks before we burned it," Enoch told The Nugget.

Firefighters practiced search and rescue drills in rooms filled with smoke from a smoke generator and practiced RIT (Rapid Intervention Team) techniques to rescue downed firefighters under simulated roof collapses.

Enoch said several officers took a tactical course in Bend recently and the drills allowed them to apply some of those tactics and teach them to volunteers.

"It went very successfully," he said.

On the day of the burn, 42 firefighters from Sisters and BBR trained for nine hours on the 1,100-square-foot house and detatched garage at 69743 Sundown Lane. The property was donated by the owner, Joel Bennette of Florida.

All hazardous materials were removed before the burn.