Decked out in full Firefighter protective “turnout” gear, face masks and air tanks, more than a dozen Forsyth County residents were led in groups of three or four into a blocky burnt-out metal building that was rapidly filling with smoke from a stack of pallets that sat ablaze in a corner.
After all the doors and windows were closed and secured, each group spent minutes in the building experiencing for the first time the feel of more than 600 degrees of heat only feet away. This was the final class of the Forsyth County Fire Department Citizens Fire Academy, and after weeks of learning about what makes a fire department run and techniques of firefighting, each graduate was given one last lesson in the form of an up-close-and-personal look at what it feels like to be on the inside of a structure on fire.