News photo by Josh Jambor Firefighters from the Alpena Fire Department practice vertical ventilation techniques on Thursday at a house on the corner of Ripley Boulevard and 3rd Avenue that is scheduled for demolition.

ALPENA – Firefighters are not lucky, they are trained, and that’s exactly what the Alpena Fire Department staff was doing at a home on the corner of Ripley Boulevard and 3rd Street Thursday morning.

Training began at 7:30 a.m. and included multiple evolutions designed to simulate real fire emergency scenarios.

Alpena Training Officer Doug Keogh explained the exercise and how and why the department used the property to practice different scenarios.

“The main training objectives at this house is to practice skills we don’t get to routinely, or at the station,” Keogh said. “An actual structure like this allows us to do the actual practicing of the tasks that we are doing in a controlled setting where we don’t have the threat of an actual fire or other hazards.”

Keogh spoke about the specific training exercises the department participated in and why the training is necessary.

“Today we are focusing on ventilation techniques, specifically vertical ventilation techniques, which is why we put holes in the roof and the attic space,” Keogh said. “We are practicing search and rescue techniques for downed victims in specific areas of the house called VES (vent, enter, search) that means we isolate the room or area, and we search and get the victim out either through a window or another route.”

“We are also practicing other methods of gaining access to the house which is why we are cutting the garage door using a triangle cut as an option to gain entry,” Keogh added. “We are also practicing the mayday drill in case one of our personnel are in need of help.”

The exercises took place in coordination with the Alpena County Landbank Authority, which plans to demolish the building during the first week of June. The partnership allowed the Fire Department to make full use of the structure for valuable training before its scheduled teardown.

“This house was chosen through the land bank; this house is scheduled for demolition because a Habitat for Humanity house is going up on this property,” Keogh explained. “Before they demolish it, they are allowing us to assist in the demolition process (breaking windows, etc) and it allows us to train on a house that will no longer be here.”

“This particular training does not happen very often because the people or banks that own or acquire the houses have to come to us, we have no idea when a house is foreclosed on or those sorts of things, it’s been about two years since we did this with a house scheduled for demolition,” Keogh added.

Thursday’s training consisted of city personnel, prioritizing hands-on experience for a large group of new firefighters who have not yet faced these scenarios in real-life situations.

“For this training it is only city department members, in the past it has been open to other departments, but today we have a large group of new individuals on the department that have not had the opportunity to do these exercises in real life yet,” Keogh said. “We have a total of 12 department members that are practicing these drills today.”

Keogh hopes the public recognizes the department’s strong commitment to preparedness through regular, hands-on drills.

“We hope that this shows the public that we take training seriously and we do our best to be ready for all situations when the calls come in,” Keogh said.