Flame on - Missoula fire crews practice their techniques

By Elizabeth L. Harrison for the Missoulian

Diana Bowen watched from across the street as bright orange flames engulfed the house next to hers.

But instead of acting nervous or afraid, Bowen stood calmly alongside other spectators as more than a dozen firefighters from the Missoula Fire Department worked to control the blaze.

The burning home at 1803 Cooper St. was the subject of a live fire exercise Thursday morning, and the controlled burn caused a dark cloud of smoke curling into the blue sky, attracting neighbors to the scene.

“Tuesday, I came home for lunch and they were practicing,” Bowen said. “I had a bunch of lily plants growing wild over there. I had to dig them out.”

Firefighters from the Missoula Fire Department participate in a live exercise Thursday, putting out a blaze they started near East Broadway. After starting the fire, they controlled it for several hours. Photo by ASHLEY McKEE/Missoulian

Acting battalion chief Jim Steenberg said the property owners were going to tear down the house, but instead offered it to the department.

“It’s not very often we get to have live fire practice,” he said, wielding a clipboard as he directed the firefighters from the front lawn.

Training officer Tony Cate said the process of prepping a house for a practice burn is lengthy.

Along with asbestos mitigation, they check the inside of the house to make sure nothing is stored there.

“We take it down to just a shell of a building,” he said.

They also cut ventilation holes in the roof for firefighters to practice ventilation techniques.

At about 9 a.m. Thursday, the department used wooden pallets and a propane torch to start the fire. An hour later, a brigade of firefighters in full suits began a series of five interior attack exercises involving entry into the house and quick knock-downs.

“It’s a very choreographed training,” Cate said, watching as some of his men cleared brush from the side of the house. “We knew how the fire would progress. Something could always go wrong, but we’ve minimized the risk as much as possible.”

Steenberg said the exercises are great training for the drivers, officers and new firefighters.
“They get to size it up, figure out what the plan of attack would be,” he said.

By about 11 a.m., crews began pushing the outer walls to help cave the house in on itself.

“I’m just afraid it will make the insides of my house smell like smoke,” Bowen said, peering nervously at her little blue house next door. But after watching the burn for a few minutes longer, she added. “They’re doing a good job of keeping things hosed down.”

An old homeless man was sleeping in the house earlier Thursday, she said. “I told him he would be the very last one!”

Irene Hiller, standing a few feet away from Bowen, said she worried about more than just the homeless squatting in the abandoned structure.

“It’s been nothing but an eyesore,” she said. “We’ve suspected some drug dealings in there.”

Hiller grew up in the neighborhood and now owns three houses across the street. She said the burning house was in the neighborhood since she was a child, but she was ready to see it go.

“It’s cleaning up the neighborhood,” Hiller said as the chimney crumbled under the licking flames.

Elizabeth L. Harrison is a newsroom intern at the Missoulian. She is a graduate student in journalism at the University of Montana.