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Sisters, Oregon
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Firefighters conduct live drill
By Jim Cornelius

It is a firefighter's nightmare: A team enters a burning structure, but when they exit, a man is missing.

That was the scenario played out by Sisters and Cloverdale firefighters on Monday, March 4, during a burn-to-learn exercise in Crossroads.

The fire district's Rapid Intervention Team practiced rescue techniques that would be used if a firefighter was trapped in a burning building by a floor or roof collapse. Additionally, the Sisters and Cloverdale units studied the fire's behavior and practiced their techniques in a realistic environment.

According to Thornton Brown of the Sisters-Camp Sherman Rural Fire Protection District, live fire training is invaluable.

"Some people saw things they'd never seen before," Brown said. "It went off without a hitch."

The department torched an old single-wide trailer on Bluegrass Lane at about 7 p.m. and the firefighters were back in station cleaning up by 9:30 p.m. The sheer speed and fury of the blaze was a lesson in itself.

This was the third burn-to-learn exercise already this year.

According to Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire Chief Don Rowe, the department has conducted some 30 such exercises in the past five years.

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