Greenwood holds special fire training for hoarder houses
GREENWOOD, Ind. (WISH) — More and more often, when firefighters roll up on a house fire, they’re finding that it’s a hoarder house.
Those are homes in which the person fills the house with anything from boxes, to furniture to trash.
Those obstacles make it more difficult for firefighters to get inside to help the person at home.
The Greenwood Fire Department is holding training to prepare crews specifically for these hoarder houses.
The city owns a vacant house at the corner of Main Street and Meridian Street that’s set to be demolished. But before that happens, the fire department is using it for training.
This week, they’ve turned it into a mock hoarder house. The door is blocked, but the firefighters need to get inside.In this training exercise, a “victim” is somewhere inside the mock hoarder house.
“Now we have to move all these items, we have to climb over items,” White River Twp. Fire Department Training and Safety Chief Dale Saucier said.
The firefighters struggled to get the water hose inside and had to continue throwing stuff out of the front door to clear a path.
“They’re finding out how to move all the debris,” Greenwood Fire Department Division Chief of Training Bryan Johns said.
This exercise is preparing them for very real situations they’re now more likely to encounter on a house fire call.
“This is something we’ve been needing to do,” Saucier said. “We also recognize the fact that it’s a growing problem.”
That’s why the Greenwood Fire Department created the training scene.
“It’s bottles, cans, pizza boxes, anything we’ve collected, a lot of furniture,” Johns said.
They made a blocked path that’s common in hoarder homes and could cause very dangerous situations for crews and residents.
“When I used to work at city of Franklin Fire Department we had a fatality apartment fire and it was hoarder conditions, and we couldn’t get to the lady and she had passed before we could get to her,” Saucier said.
Navigating the house is just one part of fighting these fires.
They said another key is just recognizing that it’s a hoarder house when they arrive on scene. And they also wanted the crews to practice getting out of the house.
Because of the heavy content, the danger for firefighters is higher than in a typical house.
“Not only is it harder to get in, but if something goes wrong really quickly, it’s even harder for us to get out,” Saucier said.
The training will take place Wednesday and Thursday as well.
About 100 firefighters from Greenwood, White River Township and Bargersville will go through the training.