OCEAN CITY — If you’re planning to tear down a house in Ocean City, give the Fire Department a call. Firefighters are happy to tear it up a bit before the demo crews show up to finish the job.
Ocean City Fire Chief Bernard Walker and Deputy Chief Richard Bickmore Jr. said the department uses buildings about to be demolished for training.
In March they were in, around and on top of the former Housing Authority building on Fourth Street, having members of the OCFD take turns honing basic and specialty skills before that building was razed by an excavator.
“We love the opportunity to have an acquired structure. We don’t always get those,” Walker said. “We’ve had a number of them over the past couple of years. It’s just a good, good opportunity for us.
“I would encourage people if they’re having their house torn down to contact us. We would love to have the opportunity.”
“To be able to (train) on real houses, the guys love it just because they actually put their hands on things they haven’t seen before, different structures,” Bickmore said.
Walker said the OCFD has other departments, like the police department and the county SWAT team, that came and used the building on Fourth Street. He noted that before the big, more than century-old Public Safety Building on Central Avenue comes down to make room for the new one, the OCFD would like to do some training inside, as would other entities such as the county Urban Search and Rescue Team.
Walker said the Seaville Volunteer Fire Company just reached out to his department to see if they could come over to do some training on an acquired structure in Ocean City.
“It’s an industry-wide opportunity for all fire departments to be able to utilize these structures,” the chief said.
The Fire Department had the Housing Authority building for a few weeks, allowing platoons to come in and work on them at regular intervals. Training involves specific drills and job performance requirements (JPRs) the department has to meet.
Walker said they are training on the two properties at the corner on the 800 block of Central Avenue the city acquired to demolish to create more parking spaces.
When Bickmore referred to firefighters putting their hands on things they haven’t seen before, he compared it to the regular training at the firehouse. They go through drills such as running hoses, but they already know the firehouse by heart. Training in an acquired structure makes them test their skills by dealing with unknown obstacles.
At the Housing Authority building, firefighters were doing basic work, stretching hose lines, throwing ladders, doing primary searches and cutting ventilation holes in the roof.
“It just gives us an opportunity to get outside of the firehouse and work on these real-life structures that we could be operating on (in a real call),” Bickmore said. “It’s getting the guys real-life hands-on experience in buildings we’re not normally operating on.”
“There’s different places you might have to stretch the hose, to the front door or to the rear of the property. A lot of buildings in town have their access on the sides of the building, up scissor stairs, so there’s a lot of variables there,” Bickmore said.
In 2014, before the massive Christian Brothers retreat buildings at 30th and 31st streets by the beach were demolished, the Sentinel documented the extensive firefighter training conducted there.
“When we have the opportunity to actually train in a structure that may be something that we may respond to for an actual fire or a rescue situation, that gives us a better opportunity to hone our skills,” Walker said.
The department has props and training simulators and can go to the fire academies in Atlantic and Cape May counties, but that requires extra time. When they’re training on a building on the island, it’s easy for them to train while on duty and be just as ready to respond to calls, the chief said.
Perishable skills
Bickmore said many skills firefighters need are “perishable.”
“If you’re not doing it all the time, it doesn’t become second nature,” he explained of the constant training. “We really hone in on the basics, the hose line stretching, the primary searches, forcing entry, being able to get through a front door of a house,” he said. “All those things are perishable, so we’re training on them consistently throughout the year.” Doing that training at different locations makes it all the better, Bickmore said.
“We have a pretty good relationship with a lot of the builders in the community and they’ll give us a heads up (on demolitions),” Bickmore said. “As long as the current homeowner is OK with that, we go through the insurance process and stuff like that to make sure that everything’s checked off. And if the owner’s willing, usually about a week prior to it coming down, they give us the green light to go in there and train.”
Walker added the department has a hold-harmless agreement so if anything happens, “it’s not on them, it’s not on their insurance, no one is going to be sued. That’s probably the concern of most people, what if a fireman gets hurt, right?”
Ask questions
“If the public sees us out there doing this, they are more than welcome to walk up and ask questions,” Bickmore said. “The guys would love to explain what they’re doing, why it’s so beneficial for us to be able to have these acquired structures for training.”
“If the public has questions on anything, we’re here 24-7, seven days a week, 24 hours a day,” Walker added. “We’ll gladly talk to the public and answer questions and show them what we’re doing.”
The non-emergency number of the OCFD is (609) 525-9182.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
