VIDEO: A long-awaited addition to the Hermon Fire Department has finally arrived. A new training prop is helping firefighters be better prepared to enter burning buildings.
“We’ve been getting pictures of this as it’s been built over the months, so it’s kind of like a baby. We’ve been waiting for it to arrive,” said Hermon Fire Chief Frank Roma.
After placing an order in June, the Hermon Fire Department finally received its custom made training prop this week.
“It’s a cutaway mockup of the construction types and features that you’ll find in residential homes that are either made with a construction type that’s called balloon frame, or platform frame,” Roma said. “Simply put, any building that’s on fire is a building that’s under destruction. The construction elements and parts of that building that are being exposed to fire are becoming weak and potentially, over time, they’ll fail and collapse. This allows us to have a better idea of what we’re working with.”