09/01/2026
๐ฅ๐ **SUNDAY MORNING PLANS: COFFEE, DONUTS, AND CUTTING HOLES IN A BUILDING.**
At 8:00 AM Sunday morning, while most normal people were still sleeping, drinking coffee, or trying to remember what they did Saturday night, firefighters from the **Indiana Fire Association, Creekside Volunteer Fire Company, and Homer City Volunteer Fire Company** were standing outside a building thinking:
**โHow much of this can we cut open before they knock it down?โ** ๐
Luckily for us, the answer was apparently **quite a bit.**
The building, located just behind the new diner on Philadelphia Street near our Central Station, was offered to us by **Earl Hewitt** before it is eventually demolished.
It wasn't the biggest building we've ever trained in, but it was absolutely packed with opportunities to work on skills that we don't get to practice nearly often enough.
And firefighters LOVE demolition buildings.
Give us a building that's already scheduled to come down and suddenly everyone becomes an architect, contractor, demolition expert, and structural engineer. ๐คฃ
Crews from all three departments worked together on:
๐ช Ladder placement and operations
๐ช Searching through windows
๐ Victim removal from ladders
๐ Rapid evacuation onto a ladder
๐จโ๐ RIT operations
๐ฅ Structural fire rescue techniques
๐ช Forcible entry
๐ช Door forcing
๐ช **Turning windows into doors**
The window-to-door operation was particularly valuable.
Sometimes a victim is simply too large to safely lift over a window sill. Firefighters can remove the cripple section of wall underneath the window, creating a larger, door-sized opening with no sill to fight while removing the patient.
It's a technique commonly used in wood-frame construction, but crews also got the opportunity to learn that it can be accomplished relatively quickly in **masonry construction** as well.
Basically:
**โThat window is too small.โ**
**โOkay. Make it a door.โ**
Firefighters: *Problem solved.* ๐
We also spent some time on **vertical ventilation** on the flat roof.
And because apparently one layer of roofing wasn't enough, crews worked through **THREE layers of roofing** to practice cutting ventilation openings.
Nothing says โgood Sunday morningโ quite like standing on a roof with a saw while everyone else is wondering why you're destroying the roof you're standing on. ๐
This kind of training is extremely valuable. It gives our members the opportunity to practice techniques, work with neighboring departments, and figure out what works โ and what doesn't โ in a controlled environment.
**Before we have to do it at 2:00 AM. In the rain. In January. With everyone yelling.**
We've been fortunate to have some fantastic demolition training opportunities over the years, including the old **Keith Hall at IUP**, where we were able to bring together **seven county fire departments** for a large-scale training event.
These buildings are training gold.
We're also excited to see the development taking place at the southwest corner of Philadelphia Street and 5th Street. Earl has already given the community a gem with **Danny's Taco**, and the new diner is looking amazing. We're excited to see what comes next for the area.
Most importantly, **THANK YOU** to every volunteer from all three departments who gave up part of their Sunday morning to come train.
You could have been sleeping.
You could have been watching TV.
You could have been doing literally anything else.
Instead, you chose to climb ladders, crawl through windows, practice RIT, force doors, cut roofs, and occasionally make a perfectly good building slightly less structurally enthusiastic. ๐
That's what being a volunteer firefighter is about.
And a HUGE **THANK YOU to Earl Hewitt** for thinking of us and giving us this opportunity. We truly appreciate it.
# # # ๐๏ธ GOT A BUILDING COMING DOWN?
**CALL US.**
Seriously.
If you have a building scheduled for demolition, we'd love the opportunity to use it for training.
And before anyone gets nervous โ **we can train without causing significant damage**, depending on what the training objectives are.
Although if you tell us:
**โDo whatever you need.โ**
โฆwe may need to have a small department-wide meeting about what exactly *โwhateverโ* means. ๐
๐ **You destroy it once. We'd rather learn from it first.**
