Entering a smoke-filled property is all in a day’s work for Dunedin firefighters, but without the pressure of a raging fire it is a much less stressful affair.
A crew of Dunedin firefighters seized the chance to practise search and rescue training and using breathing apparatus at a vacant property in Princes St last night.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand Senior Station Officer Martin Hastie said the opportunity to practise in a vacant property was "a rarity".
"This is a way of training in a safe environment where that we can get our skills up," he said.
"To be able to get a building that our firefighters don’t know and use to put them in is really good and we want to make the most of it."
Dummies were positioned in the building as a smoke machine filled the building.
SSO Hastie said the training exercise was a faithful replication of a scenario that firefighters could encounter, minus the heat.
"It’s as good as we can do without having a real fire."
tim.scott@odt.co.nz , PIJF cadet reporter
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