Forest Grove Fire & Rescue and the Cornelius Fire Department will be holding live fire training this Saturday April 21, 2012 in the former "Oasis Tavern" located at the south east corner of the Pacific Avenue and Oak Street intersection. The Oasis Tavern closed over 20 years ago and the building has been mostly vacant ever since, it is being razed to clear the property for a future dental office and has been donated to us for firefighter training by the property owner. Located on the eastern end of Forest Grove, training will be easily visible especially to motorists on Pacific Avenue. Due to the proximity to the highly traveled Pacific Avenue, we have worked with the Forest Grove Police and Public Works Department on a traffic control plan that you should be aware of.
- One eastbound lane of Pacific Avenue will be closed near the burn, but access to businesses like Papa Murphy's Pizza and Pacific Nails (as well as others) will be allowed.
- Patrons of Papa Murphy's and Pacific Nails will still be allowed to leave the parking lot of the businesses and use Oak Street southbound only, but this may be interrupted during some of our operations.
- Patrons of Papa Murphy's and Pacific Nails will still be allowed to leave the parking lot of the businesses and use Oak Street southbound only, but this may be interrupted during some of our operations.
- Oak Street will be closed to all but local access for residents between 19th Avenue and Pacific Avenue.
- Oak Street will be closed to southbound traffic between 22nd Avenue and Pacific Avenue. This is intended to avoid congestion as cars attempt to turn from Oak into the eastbound Pacific Avenue which will be down to one lane.
- Oak Street will be closed to southbound traffic between 22nd Avenue and Pacific Avenue. This is intended to avoid congestion as cars attempt to turn from Oak into the eastbound Pacific Avenue which will be down to one lane.
Fire crews will begin to gather on site around 8:00 am and will start burning within an hour of arriving and getting set up. It is estimated that sometime around noon is when the bulk of the fire will actually occur after Training Coordinators determine that it is time to let the building burn freely. It will be during this free burn time that the bulk of the smoke and flames will be visible. Based on weather forecasts we believe that the smoke will vent straight up into the atmosphere, but if the smoke does linger in the area we suggest closing windows and ventilation to your home while the smoke is present.
This type of training is vital to our ability to serve the community. We will be taking through dozens of newer firefighters to train them on how a fire actually will burn inside of a real building. This type of training provides them with important information and education that can help them work safely as volunteer firefighters. Without a fire training facility, neither Forest Grove or Cornelius have the practical ability to conduct live fire training any other way then by using a donated structure. This training event will allow us to have our newest groups of volunteer firefighters trained to the minimum standards required by the State of Oregon to certify as Firefighters and respond on our fire engines when you need them. They will be working alongside experienced career and volunteer firefighters to gain that essential knowledge needed to become a safe and practiced firefighter.
You can keep track of our training with live updates from the scene by following our Twitter and Facebook pages.
When you first founded your business, you realized that one important liability that you have is to adhere to flame protection rules. One of your lawful responsibilities is to provide flame training to your personnel.
ReplyDeletebarrier tape