Archive: Around Town

Planned Restaurant Burn Goes Without a Hitch


Lansing's Volunteer Fire Department responded to a fire at the restaurant near Lansing Middle School Saturday morning at 6:30.  The restaurant most recently known as Lori's Place burned to the ground, leaving nothing more than part of a chimney and a pile of ashes.  But this was exactly what firemen wanted as they burned the structure in an early morning training exercise.  "I was really pleased with a little bit of training we got in the interior today," said Tom Dorward, who is in charge of training for the department.

About fifteen fire fighters arrived at Central Station at 5:45am  or the event.  The weather couldn't have been better for the exercise. They arrived at the scene around 6:30am, with additional volunteers diverting traffic through Ludlowville.  Fireman Rick Sill lit the fire in the kitchen and basement by spreading diesel fuel in the structure, then igniting it with flares.  It didn't take long for the building to catch fire.  "It was a pretty dry building with a lot of open wood," Dorward explained.  "There was a lot of grease from the restaurant, which is why we didn't do any live fire training in it.  It wasn't going to be safe to do it."



Fire fighters connected hoses to two hydrants, surrounding the restaurant with water to contain the fire.  An aerial stream came from a ladder truck, with firemen directing water streams from the ground.  Dorward estimated that the stream from the back generated 500 gallons of water per minute with about the same coming from the aerial stream and up to 800 gallons per minute from the front of the site.  The fire progressed quickly with most of the structure burned in the first hour and a half.


Firemen have used the restaurant for training over the past few months, with Saturday's flare providing them one more session while demolishing the building for the School District, which now owns the property.  Dorward says the department got ventilation training, search and advancement training, as well as fire fighter survival training.  "If you're inside a house with an air pack we've got thirty minute bottles," he explains. " You have a very limited amount of time to get somebody out.  That's where a lot of fire fighters die."


Department members have to be ready for any kind of emergency.  "They could be lost, they could be trapped by something falling on them, they could go through the floor if something burns down, you saw the roof fall here when it was burning, that's certainly a risk," Dorward says, explaining why the training is so important.

Before	After

The site was still smoldering by evening, though open flames had subsided.  Fire Chief Scott Purcell was pleased with the exercise, with fire fighters successfully protecting nearby power lines and trees, and containing the fire so the building collapsed into its basement.  He said there were no unexpected problems.


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