Land Bank Provides 2 Demo Houses for Firefighter Training

High school students interested in becoming firefighters recently participated in hands-on training at two side-by-side vacant houses their owner, the Mahoning County Land Bank, is preparing for demolition in the near future.

Twenty high school students from the Mahoning County and Choffin career and technical centers filled the two abandoned houses on the 100th block of East Avondale in Youngstown for firefighter training in a real-life scenario marked by artificial smoke.

“The chief at the Youngstown firefighter academy reached out to us about the career and technical centers’ interest in doing a training in one of our houses and we gave him a list of vacant properties that were at a certain demolition status,” said ROGER SMITH, director of planning, acquisition and disposition at MCLB. “Then they chose the two that met their standards and were safe to use.

“We’re glad to see that others are able to get use out of these abandoned structures before we demolish them and turn the lots into other productive spaces.”

The Land Bank allowed firefighters to use its houses for training in the past, but this was the first time the houses were filled with artificial smoke for search and rescue training.

“Creating real-life training scenarios for our students is always a challenge,” said John Lightly, Battalion Chief at Youngstown Fire Training Academy, who helped to coordinate the training for the career centers. “They have access to mazes built into their classrooms that simulate houses, but they’re only 200 square feet at most and the students have the layouts memorized. These vacant houses were around 1,400 square feet and they had never been in them before, so it allowed them to really put into practice what they’ve learned in the classroom.

“We’re grateful for our relationship with the county land bank and its willingness to allow us to use its inventory because students rarely get these kinds of opportunities.”

The Land Bank will continue to support first responders by allowing them to use the demolition inventory for training, said Roger. 

Read a story from WKBN TV News here.