Butler County Fire Chiefs Association looking for vacant properties for fire training

BUTLER, Pa. — Some recent house fires in Butler County required multiple crews and were, at times, dangerous for them to fight. The Butler County Fire Chiefs Association is looking for vacant properties to help them prepare for similar situations.

The organization is looking for abandoned, unfurnished buildings donated by property owners that are structurally sound and marked for demolition. Earlier this year, several departments took part in four days of live fire training on the campus of VA Butler Healthcare in a structure that was demolished after the training wrapped up.

“It’s a three-story hospital facility with multiple offices, rooms and whatnot,” said Sean Sokolowski, a firefighter for the City of Butler.

While the Butler County Fire Chiefs Association did not set up that particular live fire training, firefighters said any similar training opportunity, whether it’s a vacant single-family home, apartment building, or commercial property, is valuable for many reasons.

“No two occupancies are the same. Your house isn’t the same as your neighbor’s,” Sokolowski said.

That includes how a fire reacts in a “real” structure vs. a blocked building.

“The smoke conditions inside of a blocked building after the building gets hot – it burns the smoke away, so you can see quite well like you would in the movies, where a normal house or building – all those furnishings are combustible and add to the heat and smoke properties,” Sokolowski said.

Firefighters said donating a piece of property can benefit the owners but point out there are some restrictions.

“It reduces their demolition cost because they don’t have as much to clean up at this point, but if it hits hot for asbestos – asbestos remediation is incredibly expensive, so it has to be cost-effective for us to be able to remediate that,” Sokolowski said.

For more information, you can message the Butler County Fire Chiefs Association’s Facebook page.

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