LONGPORT – Another house is about to be demolished in Longport to make way for a brand new McMansion, but before a contractor is brought in to tear it down, the borough’s volunteer firefighters got first dibs at breaking through roofs and walls.
“When we know a house is going to be demolished, we reach out to the owner to let us do training there,” Longport Volunteer Fire Department Chief Levon “Lefty” Clayton said. “We show the owners our Certificate of Insurance and get releases so they are not responsible for any injuries that might occur during the course of training.”
On Monday, firefighters were breaking through interior walls and ceilings at a property on Yarmouth Avenue. Last week, firefighters trained on a house being torn down on 22nd Avenue. In a shore community where housing is constantly being upgraded, firefighters can receive more “realistic” training that cannot be offered at the Atlantic County Fire Academy, he said.
Lt. Jim Leeds led the charge Monday as firefighters broke through the front door, cut openings in the roof, removed windows and learned how to protect themselves in case they get trapped inside a house that’s on fire.
“This type of training provides our firefighters with the type of training they can’t do at the academy. Having access to these homes that will be demolished anyway gives us the opportunity to provide real world training, such as forced entry, ventilation, cutting through ceilings and roofs to search for fire inside walls, removing windows, and how to stretch hose lines,” the chief said.
Clayton said that the department arranges for this type of training once or twice a year. The department has 38 active firefighters and about a dozen of them attended Monday’s training session.
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