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Porter firefighters step up training with burn building
  
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By STEFANIE THOMAS
The Porter Fire Department has allocated $700,000 for the construction of a burn building to enhance training for firefighters and thus improve its quality of fire service to the community.
The 4,000-square-foot, three-story building will be located outside Station 121 in the 23500 block of Loop 494 and is designed to provide firefighters with real-life fire scenarios for practice purposes.
“The burn building is going to provide a better, more efficiently trained fire department, which is going to save more lives and more property,” said Deputy Fire Chief David Teverbaugh, “and that’s what we’re all about.”
Teverbaugh said construction, performed by TJ&T Enterprises, has already begun. The bottom slab has been poured and the building is expected to be finished in January.
The burn building will allow firefighters to undergo frequent hands-on training and improve efficiency, ultimately preventing deaths, injuries and loss of property.
“Typically it takes about 20 firefighters to safely and efficiently fight a residential structure fire, but we’re a small department and would only be able to send 10 at any given time,” Teverbaugh explained. “We can do the job with those 10, but of course everybody has to double up. The burn building is going to allow us to take those 10 guys and train them to be as efficient as 20. We’re very excited about it.”
Teverbaugh said that the Porter FD - currently consisting of 16 paid full-time firefighters, 18 part-time paid firefighters and six volunteers - wants to continue moving toward becoming a stand-alone department and no longer rely on help from neighboring departments.
“Right now we have to call other departments every time we make a response,” Teverbaugh said. “The problem is that, although every department in Montgomery County now has some paid personnel, they of course want to cover their own territory. So how many people can they really afford to send to another area? The burn building will be a huge step for us toward becoming independent.”
As the name implies, the burn building, constructed of concrete and cinder blocks, is designed to burn - over and over again. And the firefighters will be putting out the fires in a controlled environment.
The constant repetition, Teverbaugh said, will create muscle memory. The concept, based on military training techniques, suggests that the firefighters’ bodies will remember the motions and recall what needs to be done automatically in an emergency.
“When a fire truck rolls up to a structure fire, the officer in the seat up front has maybe 11 to 12 seconds to do a complete size-up of the building and make a decision of what to do,” he explained. “He doesn’t have the time to direct the people around him; they have to be in automatic mode and for the next 3 to 5 minutes, the crew has to operate independently so the officer can get a total grasp of the situation. And the firefighters can’t do that unless we train them. It’s been my experience that if you don’t train exactly the way you play, then you won’t play right.”
Teverbaugh said that the firefighters will dress in full gear and simulate real-life scenarios as closely as possible. The burn building even features wall breeches to effectively teach firefighters how to break through walls and ceilings, a skill he said can be life-saving to firefighters and civilians alike when a building threatens to collapse.
The Porter FD burn building will be the only one of its kind in the entire county, Teverbaugh said. Although The Woodlands Fire Department just recently held a grand opening for a burn building as well, Teverbaugh points out a major difference between the two constructions.
“Theirs is a steel building; they burn natural gas, and it burns clean,” he explained. “We want to be closer to the real thing, the real feel.”
Teverbaugh said that the burn building will also be available to other departments for training and through classes offered through the Lone Star College System.
The 4,000-square-foot, three-story building will be located outside Station 121 in the 23500 block of Loop 494 and is designed to provide firefighters with real-life fire scenarios for practice purposes.
“The burn building is going to provide a better, more efficiently trained fire department, which is going to save more lives and more property,” said Deputy Fire Chief David Teverbaugh, “and that’s what we’re all about.”
Teverbaugh said construction, performed by TJ&T Enterprises, has already begun. The bottom slab has been poured and the building is expected to be finished in January.
The burn building will allow firefighters to undergo frequent hands-on training and improve efficiency, ultimately preventing deaths, injuries and loss of property.
“Typically it takes about 20 firefighters to safely and efficiently fight a residential structure fire, but we’re a small department and would only be able to send 10 at any given time,” Teverbaugh explained. “We can do the job with those 10, but of course everybody has to double up. The burn building is going to allow us to take those 10 guys and train them to be as efficient as 20. We’re very excited about it.”
Teverbaugh said that the Porter FD - currently consisting of 16 paid full-time firefighters, 18 part-time paid firefighters and six volunteers - wants to continue moving toward becoming a stand-alone department and no longer rely on help from neighboring departments.
“Right now we have to call other departments every time we make a response,” Teverbaugh said. “The problem is that, although every department in Montgomery County now has some paid personnel, they of course want to cover their own territory. So how many people can they really afford to send to another area? The burn building will be a huge step for us toward becoming independent.”
As the name implies, the burn building, constructed of concrete and cinder blocks, is designed to burn - over and over again. And the firefighters will be putting out the fires in a controlled environment.
The constant repetition, Teverbaugh said, will create muscle memory. The concept, based on military training techniques, suggests that the firefighters’ bodies will remember the motions and recall what needs to be done automatically in an emergency.
“When a fire truck rolls up to a structure fire, the officer in the seat up front has maybe 11 to 12 seconds to do a complete size-up of the building and make a decision of what to do,” he explained. “He doesn’t have the time to direct the people around him; they have to be in automatic mode and for the next 3 to 5 minutes, the crew has to operate independently so the officer can get a total grasp of the situation. And the firefighters can’t do that unless we train them. It’s been my experience that if you don’t train exactly the way you play, then you won’t play right.”
Teverbaugh said that the firefighters will dress in full gear and simulate real-life scenarios as closely as possible. The burn building even features wall breeches to effectively teach firefighters how to break through walls and ceilings, a skill he said can be life-saving to firefighters and civilians alike when a building threatens to collapse.
The Porter FD burn building will be the only one of its kind in the entire county, Teverbaugh said. Although The Woodlands Fire Department just recently held a grand opening for a burn building as well, Teverbaugh points out a major difference between the two constructions.
“Theirs is a steel building; they burn natural gas, and it burns clean,” he explained. “We want to be closer to the real thing, the real feel.”
Teverbaugh said that the burn building will also be available to other departments for training and through classes offered through the Lone Star College System.
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