The Perry Volunteer Fire Department staged a structure-fire training exercise Saturday morning, burning a vacant house at 400 E. Railroad St. in Dawson to the ground.
“A burn like this keeps our firefighters used to the heat of a real fire,” said Perry Volunteer Fire Department Incident Commander Dave Pillow of Perry, a 23-year veteran of the PVFD. “If you haven’t done this for a while, you start to forget how hot it really is. This way, when a real fire happens, it’s second nature to you.”
The fire crew were also able to accustom themselves to new equipment and practice various technical methods of firefighting, he said.
Passersby on the Raccoon River Valley Trail shouted encouragement, and a crowd of onlookers gathered nearby around 11 a.m., when the vacant house was fully engulfed. Pillow said the training exercise was a success, and the house was burned with no damage to neighboring structures.
