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Local firefighters conduct live training in vacant home

firefighters training in a controlled fire at a vacant house provided by Steve Grieb, a fellow volunteer firefighter. This training will help prepare the volunteer firefighters with real life fires as they continue their careers.

MILL HALL — Thanks to Steve Grieb, volunteer firefighters were able to experience a true trial by fire.

Grieb, who is from the Lamar area, donated a vacant home he owns to local fire departments to stage critical training for volunteers young and old.

The property, in the 600 block of Fishing Creek Road in Porter Township, was already considered to be in dilapitated and unlivable conditions before the training sessions were set to begin.

The event was hosted by Nittany Valley Volunteer Fire Co. and several other local fire companies participated, including the fire companies of Mill Hall, Sugar Valley, Beech Creek Blanchard, Howard, Dunnstown, the citizens of Milesburg, and the Good Will Hose and Ambulance.

Shawn Etters, assistant chief at Nittany Valley, helped to coordinate the training.

“Walker Township and Castanea fire companies were on standby for calls and to handle any emergency situations that were to occur during the time period that this training took place,” Etters said.

“The class included 19 trainees, about 50 people total, with the class and the instructors and everyone involved. It is not very often that we get an opportunity to do this sort of thing,” Etters said.

Fires were started in different areas of the building by professionals, isolated and controlled.

This allowed the volunteers to learn how to read different kinds of smoke, assess different entry points and provide a chance for real, hands-on training of what it is like inside of an active fire situation.

“Rob Moore and Jon Hart were our lead instructors. They led the class through some pretty in-depth training,” Etters noted.

Firefighters training in a controlled fire at a vacant house provided by Steve Grieb, a fellow volunteer firefighter. This training will help prepare the volunteer firefighters with real life fires as they continue their careers

“The class were able to learn how to go inside of a burning building and put out the fire. They learned how to read different kinds of smoke, and the approach to take in different scenarios. They learned different techniques that can be used to put out a fire and they learned hose management skills,” he added.

“I just want to put it out there, the fire department is always looking for these kinds of houses or properties.”

“There is a lot of valuable information and experience that we can get out of an event like this. We wanted to get a lot of people in the area involved. If anyone owns property that they want torn down, I urge them to give us a call. Even if we do not tear them down, we can use them for training,” Etters said.

Anyone with questions or information about properties suited for fire training may call Etters at 570-263-0798, or the fire company at 570-726-6884.

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