Firefighters will burn to learn

Fire departments usually are focused on putting out blazes they are summoned to, but this weekend just the opposite will be true when a vacant house in Mount Airy is intentionally torched.

It is located at 348 Galloway St., on the corner of that street and Junction Street.

Residents or passersbys in that area might think the controlled burn scheduled for Sunday afternoon is the real thing, including heavy smoke.

However, it will involve a training exercise sponsored by Surry Community College, according to Mount Airy Fire Chief Zane Poindexter. City firefighters will be joined by members of neighboring local departments for the effort.

“We will be starting a little after 2 p.m. on Sunday,” Poindexter advised.

While the blaze will not constitute a real emergency, it will have an authentic look.

“There will be lots of smoke in the area for a few hours on Sunday,” the city fire chief forewarned.

Meanwhile, local firefighters will be getting valuable hands-on experience during the exercise.

“The very best training is done on the real thing, and that’s what we will do,” Poindexter explained. “It’s about a 1,500-square-foot house that the owner donated to let us burn.”

County records show the structure is owned by heirs of Beatrice Childress, in care of Jack Childress.

Cases in which houses are offered for training are known as acquired structural burns.

The burn part of Sunday’s effort will probably take about 90 minutes to two hours. But Poindexter said Friday that fire personnel will be on the scene well into the night to “baby-sit” the situation — which is the procedure during an unplanned blaze.

Firefighters to take part will be fulfilling their training hours and/or gaining exposure to the battling of interior blazes.

“We’re expecting about 25,” Poindexter said.

The Mount Airy Fire Department periodically is involved in such burns as houses become available.

Poindexter recalled that the last such occasion was in November 2022, when a controlled burn targeted an outlying structure on the grounds of St. Andrew Lutheran Church at 1401 Fancy Gap Road.

This involved a house the church long had used for storage, which the St. Andrew leadership decided to sacrifice for training purposes.

Poindexter has said one key benefit with such burns surrounds the automatic-aid agreements the Mount Airy Fire Department has with neighboring units to ensure sufficient manpower at fire scenes.

Personnel from different departments get the chance to work with each other and develop a cohesion that can be beneficial later.