Smoke billowed Tuesday out of a building behind the Plainfield Fire Protection District headquarters as firefighting crews geared up to enter and look for survivors.
Lt. Andy Scott worked with another firefighter to bust open a jammed door to the building and conduct a search for people on the first floor before heading to the second.
Firefighters found a victim on the second floor and radioed the information back to command. But they received a second order that the stairs had collapsed. So Scott and other firefighters set up a ladder rescue from a second-floor balcony.
The victim was really a beanbag dummy, the smoke was fake and the Plainfield firefighters were conducting one of the first training exercises in the fire district's two new fire training buildings.
The buildings were constructed during the summer, and fire officials are optimistic about their capabilities.
"This is a solid foundation for the beginning of many things," Chief Dave Riddle said.
The two fire training buildings look like a pair of black, generic structures. But inside, they have been designed to mimic real-life conditions.
The south building is a burn structure. Included are an attached garage, basement escape wells and other characteristics of single-family homes, senior living communities and commercial buildings unique to Plainfield.