Training Burn

On Thursday, June 18th, Hillsboro Firefighters conducted a training burn at 26180 NW Evergreen Road. The drills are part of live fire training all firefighters are required to have annually. Training officers set fires in several donated construction site office trailers to provide firefighters with experience in understanding fire behavior and practice tactics in dealing with mobile home fires which build and spread rapidly. Later, firefighters dealt with practice burns in a shop building on the property and capped off the day with training five new volunteer firefighters in the four bedroom, 1950s vintage home on the property.

While firefighters practice in putting out fires, you would be wise in using this reminder to practice your home escape plan with your whole family. Sit down tonight and sketch out the footprint of your home showing the doors and windows as the two ways out of every room. Select a meeting place outside where everyone should gather once out of the house. It should be at the front of the home so you're ready to tell arriving firefighters whether anyone is missing. Plan to call 9-1-1 from a neighbor's phone or your cell phone.

Then actually conduct a fire drill in your home by pressing the test button on your smoke alarm and having everyone exit to your meeting place. See if you can improve your exit times from one drill to the next. Have at least one drill per year at night.

For more information on fire and life safety issues, visit www.ci.hillsboro.or.us/fire.