As EntertainMART reopens its doors in River Hills Mall, the new owners of the 501 Main Street property have allowed the Kerrville Fire Department to use the building for practicing emergency training exercises before the impending demolition.
The massive commercial building that once housed EntertainMART, Hastings, and other businesses throughout the years is scheduled to begin demolition this week. Before the vacant building is leveled, KFD was given access for a week to run a plethora of emergency exercises and scenarios beyond their normal training capabilities.
“It’s a different structure than we normally train on at the tower, which lets the guys really work on the fundamentals of being a firefighter … like dragging hose, using tools, or getting out of weird spots in a structure,” KFD Battalion Chief Billy Williams said.
The week-long training covered a variety of situations each day that utilized the building’s unique offerings, such as the large commercial space, drop ceilings, and two stories, which gave firefighters a hands-on, yet controlled, emergency training opportunity.
“This morning’s training is built on three stations that the guys will rotate through. We’re doing some interior work in a smoked out area, and then we’re doing some downed firefighter searching, and then a wall-breaching in another section,” Williams said.
At one station, firefighters suited up in full gear and entered the building’s two-story office attachment to conduct a search-scenario. The side-building was fogged out completely with stage smoke, creating a safe but realistically low-visibility situation for the simulated emergency.
“For this exercise, the report is that there’s someone in there and that’s what our guys are looking for. They’ll do either a right or left-handed search, where we stay on the wall with our hands, looking around furniture or whatever’s inside that structure. We go around it fast with a primary search then we follow it up with a secondary search that’s a little bit slower, a little more methodical. We’re looking under and behind a lot of stuff and behind stuff to make sure that we cleared the structure of all occupants,” Williams said.
Inside the main building, firefighters practiced for emergency extrication by breaking through the walls.
“Inside they are breaching some walls with hand tools for the situation where a fireman gets lost or stuck in an area that’s hard to get out. The most challenging aspect, even from my standpoint as an officer outside, is how large this structure is–you can easily lose a person,” Williams said.
Firefighters also used the engine ladder to get access to the roof to create ventilation holes using power tools.
“We’ll do what we consider vertical operations, using our ladder truck and ground ladders. The reason we make vertical cuts is because when a fire goes up, it plumes out, and then it banks down. So if we can get a vertical access through the roof, then all that heat and energy can get out, otherwise it gets pressurized and can bring the structure to the ground,” said Williams.
By allowing KFD to train in buildings set for demolition before their destruction, the community benefits by having a fire department with first responders familiar with emergency protocol on a variety of structures.
“Anytime KFD can get access to an acquired building that’s going to come to the ground eventually, it gives us some hands-on, real life experience. Just a different element of training we usually can’t do,” said Williams.
For more information about KFD, you can visit their website at www.kerrvilletx.gov/107/Fire-Department.