Rural fire departments burn down home outside Lincoln to give firefighters experience

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Several rural fire departments got together Saturday morning to burn down a house just southeast of Lincoln.

It was part of training exercises that gave the firefighters experience with a real burning building.

Darin Lintner, a training specialist with the Nebraska State Fire Marshal, said over half a dozen departments from across southeast Nebraska got to take turns working in the building before it came down.

“You know, this is invaluable,” he said. “They’ll lose the visibility in there. This isn’t a campfire, so eventually they’re gonna go in this house and nobody will be able to see anything, and that’s pretty important.”

Firefighter Logan Petersen said it was “amazing practice” for how hard navigating a burning building can be.

He said they only get to work in situations like this once or twice every few years.

The property was donated by Monte Froehlich, who said the home was built in 1920.

He said it was too difficult and costly to renovate, so he thought it’d be put to better use if rural fire departments had it for training.

“I think initially they were planning on maybe 30 firefighters being here, and there’s closer to 60,” he said. “I think firefighters as far as two hours away have come to just get some practice.”

Lintner said they don’t get very many of these houses to work with anymore, and many departments will instead use “burn boxes” made of metal storage containers.

He said having a real structure to work with gives them a better idea of how buildings will burn and come down.

“I think the best thing is the awareness,” he said. “That these guys understand what they’re going into. It’s a skill for these firefighters go into places that other people are running out of.”

Once the house is burned down, Froehlich said the land will likely be given to the city for further use.