Every fire first responders go to is different, and the fire department can't perfectly recreate scenarios they might encounter at training facilities.
That's why crews with the Reno Fire Department are training using buildings set for demolition.
"In our community, our biggest threat is single-family residential structure fire," said Division Chief of Training Corey Whitlock. "So, in the Reno Fire Department, we take that, like our service, with a lot of pride. And the way we get better is by practicing."
Multiple fire crews took part in the training, which involved locating two victims inside the home with little to no visibility, putting out the fire, and cutting through the roof to allow smoke to escape as it would from a chimney.
"There's always hiccups in real-world stuff, and there's hiccups in training, and it's good to kind of iron those out," said Danny Rich, a firefighter from Engine 9. "And you can find those hiccups in the training, and then we can kind of capitalize on that and learn from that too, where when it comes to the real world, we've seen this before in training."
Whitlock says instead of practicing to get something right, they practice enough to never get it wrong.
For more details on the exercise, watch the attached video above.
