Portland abandoned house fire was part of training

Portland planned to train its firefighters with smoke Thursday. But they also got fire when the smoke grenades dropped into the abandoned house set trash inside on fire.
Fire Chief Jim Leahey said the nine firefighters had the fire under control throughout the drill at the house on the corner of Fourth and Houston streets.

The drill was part of several planned by the department to sharpen firefighters’ skills. Leahey said the city also has used the fire department’s assistance as an effort to clean up the city by using many dilapidated structures as training. When some of the structures are burned, they are taken off the lot and the property is brought back to code.

“They have to be trained for doing this,” he said and that means that the drills must be as real as possible, including the firefighters not knowing it is a drill initially.

The abandoned home that the fire department used Thursday had burned a year ago and no longer was being maintained by its owner, Leahey said.

Leahey said surrounding neighbors were notified about the plans for a drill, but other city residents were concerned by the smoke and flames.
By Elvia Aguilar The Corpus Christi Caller-Times