HANCOCK COUNTY — The dark smoke started flowing out of the top of the roof of the old Shenandoah Motel on Thursday morning. The rolling smoke was followed by deep orange, dancing flames bursting through the roof. Within just a few minutes, the fire was out, being soaked by crews from the Sugar Creek Township Fire Department (SCTFD) who took a short breather before setting the motel on fire again and again.
The burns were part of a day-long training session for the current SCTFD recruit class, which had the chance to get real hands-on experience thanks to the property owner, Michael Jacobs, who offered up the empty structure, located on the corner of South 350W and U.S. 40, as a training ground for the department. The motel, a once thriving business in the county, has stood empty for years and became a bit of an eyesore. It will eventually be demolished along with the house to the east of it with plans for the property’s future uncertain.
One thing that was sure. The seven-member recruit class, led by Battalion Chief, Andy Neumeister and other department firefighters, were taking advantage of a rare opportunity to get specific, hands-on training on a real structure they could set on fire.
“It’s going good,” Neumeister said.
Dressed in full firefighting gear, Neumeister was soaking wet, having just walked out from being in the thick of it, inside the building with the recruits. He was instructing them as well as watching to make sure each team working on a burn was attacking the fire properly.
Neumeister noted that while crews from their department train all the time, working on real structures is just more realistic.
“It’s just like the real thing,” he said.
Department Chief Brandon Kleine was also on hand watching his crews and noted they to do plenty of paperwork and prepping in order to take advantage of this type of hands-on burn training.
In order to train at the old motel, fire department officials had to clean out asbestos and get proper permits from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) to train and eventually destroy the motel, which has numerous units.
“What they’re doing today is ventilation burns on the roof to practice our ventilation techniques and then burns inside the rooms that can simulate something like an apartment fire,” Kleine said. “This gives the guys a real feeling of the kind of work they will be doing from the moment they get to a fire, from to putting a fire out to salvage and recovery — they’re getting to do the whole process of what covering a structure fire would be like.”
Kleine noted getting this type of hands-on experience with a burn is kind of rare for a recruit, which is why some of the other firefighters who are already on the department took part as well.
Second year firefighter/EMT Caleb Pyle has been on the SCTFD since he was 18. Now at age of 21, he wanted to be a part of the training to help the new recruits but also get some more training and experience.
“This is by far the best type of training we can do,” Pyle said. “It’s the most realistic and obviously every type of training we do is a stepping stone, so this type of training is putting together everything that we’ve worked on with the recruits.”
Casey O’Daniel, firefighter and fitness trainer for SCTFD, was also on site and said getting the recruits in shape physically and mentally to handle these types of fires is what this type of training can do.
“What I like about my job is I can help push them mentally and get them to that next level where they can learn when sometimes it’s not so safe to learn in a real fire situation,” O’Daniel said. “I like to push them in training both physically and mentally because they are capable of much more than their minds tell them.”
Kleine agreed and noted he feels fortunate the property owner allowed his crews to use the old motel which will provide many opportunities for training.
“We’re just thankful that we have the opportunity to do these kinds of burns because it gives our guys more real-life experience and they’ll be better prepared when they’re actually on the streets,” Kleine said. “We’ll be back up here multiple times to burn this structure and get it down.”
