Firefighters train in Virginia City

Storey County and Lyon County firefighters were in Virginia City to train on a live fire Saturday and Sunday. Twelve firefighters from Storey county completed training required to enter a burning building.

The fire training was provided by North Tree Fire International, a contracted fire training company that travels around the country bringing mobile fire training facilities to fire departments around the western United States.

Jim Hawke, Nevada State Fire Marshall and Training Superintendent, helped bring the training to Virginia City by providing a grant set aside by the Legislature.

"This is absolutely the best training available for firefighters in Nevada," Hawke said.

Firefighters were put through a series of five tests before facing a live fire fueled by propane. They took a written test, were timed while putting on their protective gear, properly ventilated a burning structure, rescued someone from a structure and preformed a blind rescue. Only then could the firefighters enter the mobile training center to put out a fire.

Once inside the training center, two-man teams of firefighters fought two fires in an enclosed area fueled by propane and controlled by an operator in a control room. The operator controlled every aspect of the fire via computer -- from the temperature inside the room to the amount of smoke present.

"We could have the rooms ventilated, smoke free and the fire out within 10 seconds if needed," said Tom Zurflueh, the control room operator for North Tree.

Firefighters James Mitchell and Robert Hembrough entered the room and made only one mistake during their training: They turned their back to the fire after putting it out.

And they heard an earful from their chief about it.

"It's a mistake we won't make again. Next time it could be a real fire and it could flare back up," Mitchell said.

Karl Gambrall, a firefighter with the Storey County fire department, was in charge of the two days of training and tries to have the training every year. Firefighters trained for three months before being able to face the live fire training, but this was the first time North Tree Fire International had been contracted.

"This training provides confidence in their skills and their equipment," said Hawke.

The last time Storey County was able to do a live fire training exercise was at the training facility at the Carson City Airport. The training cost about $3,500 to train with North Tree for two days as opposed to $2,500 to train at the airport.

"The real advantage with training with North Tree is we don't have to leave our town to train and can still respond to an emergency if needed. But what's better is that these guys are all volunteers today with only the satisfaction of serving their community," Grambrall said.