Ready to go. Firefighters from area fire departments participated in live burn training at a house in Grand Marais on Saturday, April 10. Left: Team 2 (Cory Ronden, Kim Dunsmoor and Linda Bloomquist) is geared up and ready to enter the burning building. Above: Inside the burning structure, firefighter trainee team 1 (Shane Danielson, Jacob Wilson, Paul Olin) prepare to enter a burning room.
Smoke hung over the city of Grand Marais on Saturday, April 10, 2010 as invaluable live burn training for firefighters took place at a home at 406 First Avenue East from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Theplan of firefighters and instructors was to conduct training while burning the house to the ground. However, Grand Marais Fire Chief Ben Silence, incident commander at the scene, in consultation with Aaron Mielke of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), determined that dry weather conditions, low humidity and predicted wind gusts would not allow the house to be completely burned down. Training was still undertaken, with small interior fires being lit and extinguished by firefighter trainees.
The live burn training was conducted under the watchful eyes of Mesabi Range Community College—Lead Instructor Steve Shyker, Torch Erik Korpela, Rob Spolar, Sam Grigsby, Jeffrey Mayer, and Jeffrey R. Lilja. Assistant Fire Chief Steve DuChien of the Grand Marais Fire Department was the scene safety officer. Under their supervision, the Grand Marais fire department lit fires inside rooms in the house, using hay bales and wood pallets.
Teams of firefighters from the Colvill, Grand Marais, Maple Hill, Eveleth, and Grand Rapids fire departments entered the home to extinguish the fires, practicing the skills they have been acquiring in Firefighter I classes. Twelve firefighters participated in “level 1” and “level 2” training—first entering the house to extinguish a fire in one room and then returning to fight fires in two rooms. They used hoses and a water drop tank from the Colvill and Maple Hill Fire Department, with an engine from the Grand Marais Fire Department on for back up.
The Firefighter I students who participated in the live burn were Kim Dunsmoor, Linda Bloomquist, Jacob Wilson, Kevin Thompson, Shane Danielson, and Paul Olin of Colvill; Cory Ronden of Balsam, MN; Dave Bartz and Stephanie Radloff of Maple Hill; Kevin “Mike” Flack of Grand Marais and Lisa Thomas and Tiffany Kunnari of Eveleth.
Firefighters emerged from the hot and smoky building, red-faced but happy that they accomplished the feat of locating the fire in the dark and were able to extinguish the blaze and ventilate the smoke from the room. Over and over, teams entered and the instructors and volunteer firefighters observed carefully. First Responder personnel were also on hand and provided “rehab” for the firefighters, ensuring that they were hydrated and able to continue.
Stopping by to observe for a little while were Tom and Stefanie Crosby, who owned the home. Their house was the site of a fire call on September 5, 2009. The Grand Marais, Colvill, and Maple Hill Fire Departments were paged at that time and the departments were able to save the home, however the kitchen was destroyed by fire and the house suffered extensive smoke damage. That fire was the third time the house was burned and the Crosbys and their insurance company decided it was best to level the house and rebuild. As long as the house had to be torn down, the Crosbys offered it to be used for firefighter training.
Fire Chief Silence expressed appreciation to them for letting the house be used for training. He also said thank you to the dozens of volunteers who assisted with the burn. He added thanks to the public for being understanding about the smoke for the day.
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