07/11/2026
Thursday night we got to practice with live fire thanks to a property owner who wanted to bring down a disused farm building.
After permitting and proper notices, in earlier weeks we practiced "firefighter down" scenarios - cutting walls, turning windows into doors, declaring and responding to maydays, and rapidly removing a FF and beginning emergency medical procedures.
For this exercise, together with our automatic aid partner Towanda Fire Department who brought an engine, tender, and plenty of firefighters, our mutual aid partners Gridley FireDepartment and Chenoa Fire Department who supplied water tenders, we conducted a demolition burn. This let us practice many skills with high realism: 1) Our newer firefighters now understand just how hot a fire can be, and they got plenty of hose and nozzle time and practiced exposure protection. 2) Our engineers established a water supply through nursing tenders and relay pumping. 3) McLean County Emergency Management Agency deployed a drone with thermal imaging capabilities, with which we were able to precisely direct our hose lines to protect the nearby shed from the INTENSE heat (see their linked post for pictures in the comments below). 4) The list goes on...
Just as we began our training burn, a 911 call for service was received over in the City of Lexington, IL. This was no problem since whenever we plan intensive training, we also keep an engine and crew ready to go. They returned to scene just in time to help with the last few minutes of clean up.
Now is a great time to decide to volunteer with your rural fire department - please reach out to our members or this page via messenger to learn more. Additional information is available on our website.
