Madison Fire Department Gets Some Valuable Real-World Training

Practice, it is said, makes perfect. That phrase took on added meaning this week as the had an opportunity to practice firefighting techniques on a trio of vacant homes on Cook Avenue.

The timeworn structures located near Ridgedale Avenue are slated for demolition to make way for condominiums. Owner and builder Rich Romano offered them to the fire department for training purposes.

“You know the old saying: One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” said Madison Fire Chief Lou DeRosa. “This was a great opportunity to conduct training and do stuff we don’t normally do.”

Access to structures has been donated in past years by other contractors, including Steve Jensen, Joe DeMarzo, John DiSimone, Wayne Parisi, Carmen Vacchiano and Will Lloyd, according to DeRosa.

The department on Tuesday’s warm evening deployed 14 department personnel, a ladder truck and a fire engine at the site while borough police blocked off one end of Cook Avenue. A machine was brought into produce theatrical-type fog to simulate smoke conditions. The department has participated in training sessions using actual fire, but a so-called live burn is expensive and requires state approval. The movie set fog is vegetable oil-based and produces harmless carbon dioxide when burned, making conditions much safer for the firefighters.

Along with the “smoke”-filled environment, firefighters worked on laying hand lines up stairs and through doors, cutting roof holes, and removing windows during the three-hour session.

“It was an opportunity to do things in a real-world scenario,” said DeRosa.

The exercise also simulated a live fire situation in a second-floor bedroom. Firefighters in full breathing gear dropped a battery-operated strobe light in a bucket to simulate firelight and used thermal cameras to facilitate forced entry through doors that had been screwed shut.

Among the techniques worked on, “We broke through a dozen doors in the three structures, and used a power saw to cut four-foot by four-foot holes in the roof, things we do in actual fires,” DeRosa said. “There’s a proper technique to breaking windows, for example.”

The houses were thoroughly inspected several times prior to the training to check for possible hazards.

The department helps its personnel stay up to date with regular training sessions, but there’s a bottom-line incentive. The borough’s fire-fighting operations are rated by the Insurance Service Organization, and insufficient training or poor ratings can lead to higher insurance premiums. That’s why department personnel also train at the Morris County Fire Academy.

DeRosa pronounced the exercise a success; one firefighter suffered slight heat exhaustion.