If you live near Broadway between Mercer and Harrison, you may have smelled smoke or seen the multiple unit response by the Seattle Fire Department starting early Tuesday morning. But it’s all good. They were the ones setting the fires.

A Capitol Hill corner destined for redevelopment — and already singed in an accidental fire earlier this winter — is burning this week in exercises to help SFD firefighters train under real flames and conditions in the densely packed neighborhood.

Battalion Chief Jared Fields told CHS why they were setting a vacant house on fire in the middle of Capitol Hill at Federal and Republican across from Broadway Hill Park.  “What we’re doing here today is conducting some live fire training in an acquired structure,” Fields said.

In addition to posting notices on social media, SFD says it asked its firefighters to go door-to-door to notify neighboring homes and businesses of potential impact from the two days of exercises. The practice burns will continue through Wednesday.

The previously scheduled practice comes following a rare deadly fire on Capitol Hill.

Last Thursday night, two people died in a 23rd Ave apartment fire that investigators say appears to have been accidentally started. The victims in that blaze have not yet been publicly identified.

The 1904-era home being used in the training this week is part of three properties at the corner across from the park long planned for redevelopment. Last year, CHS reported on revived plans for a new eight-story, 75-unit building on the corner. Permitting for the project has now been completed. The old homes have been boarded up though, as with many emptied properties around the Hill, squatters have been an issue. Neighbors recently already saw smoke and flames at the corner when one of the old houses was damaged in a basement fire on a chilly February night. Nobody was hurt in that fire and damage was limited to the old house.

A scene from the March training at the corner

A scene from the March training at the corner

SFD’s program has been in place for around four years allowing construction companies or citizens to donate a building for training. The fire department recently was awarded an Assistance to Firefighters Grant to help train the trainers. ““We’re also bringing members from our instructional cadre up here to see it so they can teach these types of classes in the future” Fields told CHS.

The grant was awarded in collaboration with Underwriters Laboratory, which “is a not-for-profit organization whose goods are to establish, maintain, and operate laboratories for the investigation of materials, devices, products equipment, constructions, methods, and systems with respect to hazards affecting life and property.” In order to better understand how fires burn, the drills give trainers first hand experience and present opportunities for recording for future presentations.

Underwriters Laboratory has also erected buildings that look the same and are furnished the same with identical fuel input loads, and did thousands of burns to see how fire is going to behave and how it travels and gives firefighters “a much greater understanding” of how to tactically approach fires.

Capitol Hill residents can help make their homes safer by being careful with some of the most frequent causes of fires including improperly discarded cigarettes and smoking materials and, yes, the dreaded “food on the stove” callouts. Proper use of fire doors is also important for the neighborhood’s thousands of apartment dwellers.

As Battalion Chief Fields explained the search and rescue aspect of this week’s training, he requested CHS readers also be aware — “closed doors save lives. When you go to bed at night, close your door.” After conducting extensive research, the Firefighter Safety Research Institute, a branch of Underwriters Laboratory has provided evidence that a shut bedroom door can enhance the likelihood of surviving a fire by slowing down the spread of toxic gas and smoke.

Tuesday, neighbors around the practice burn had their own smoke to contend with. SFD also advised that tap water might turn brown “due to sediment in the pipes.” “The water is likely to clear on its own within 2-8 hours,” SFD said.

But the fire was, hopefully, safer than most. SFD says all “carpet, plastics and toxic synthetic materials” have been removed from the house along with required asbestos abatement and that the training is being conducted “under the strict regulations and rules of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency.”

“The smoke coming from the buildings during the live-fire is equivalent to smoke from a fireplace,” SFD said. “After the fires are out, most of what you see coming from the structure is steam.”

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