The Pipestone Fire Department, in conjunction with the Jasper and Hardwick Fire Departments, had an opportunity, Wednesday, July 8, to do a practice burn of an abandoned farmhouse.
The farmhouse was located five miles south of Jasper, and one-quarter mile east, according to Mark Otter, Pipestone Fire Chief.
Property owners donate the homes for fire training, Otter said.
“But it has to be the right house,” Otter said.
The house must be checked for asbestos, Otter said, which is done by a specialized company at a cost of about $1,000. The homeowner must pay the cost of the check and also for asbestos removal, if any is discovered.
Once the house is cleared of asbestos, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) issues a burn permit to the fire department.
“So you can see, this is not easy to do,” Otter said. “If we get one (house) every three or four years, that would be good.”
The fires are set with straw bales and wooden pallets by instructors at the Minnesota West fire-training program, Otter said.
The firefighters, “get to go into the rooms with an instructor and watch the fire build and then they get to put it out several times,” Otter said. “At the end of the training, if all the conditions are right, we will start the house on fire and let it burn.”
Obviously, as the accompanying photos show, those conditions were right.
