CANFIELD — The Cardinal Joint Fire District conducted live fire training over the weekend at a one-floor, five-room house at the corner of Leffingwell Road and state Route 46.

The training was made possible through the cooperation of the Mahoning County Agricultural Society and the fire district.

The 9-acre property and the house were purchased last year by the society. The property could be used for future parking expansion, but no definite decision has been made yet. However, it was determined the house needed to be torn down.

“We offered it to the fire district and they accepted it (for training),” fair board member Bev Fisher said.

In January, CJFD Capt. Conner O’Halloran took the lead for the training.

“We had to comply with the EPA,” he said. “It (the house) had to be used specifically for training and had to be free of asbestos.”

The house cleared the inspection and the fire district was issued Open Burn Approval by the Ohio EPA.

O’Halloran said the CJFD also had to ensure there was 11,000 gallons of water on site and available during the training and burning of the house.

“We set 14 evolutions (room fires) in each room,” O’Halloran said. “We have 40 firefighters taking part. They are from the CJFD, Green, Ellsworth, Poland and Jackson. Everyone got some level of learning from this.”

Fisher said the CJFD was allowed to hook up to the fairground hydrants to ensure there was enough water.

The house was prepped prior to the burn, with each room set to become a separate fire. O’Halloran said each hole that was used to check for asbestos had to be sealed back up to prevent the fire from moving into other areas of the house.

At the end of the last training session, the district let the house burn to the ground.

Training will continue in about a month when the CJFD does fire training at the Pumpkin Barn on the Fairgrounds. No date has been set yet, but because it is close to the main entrance, the fairgrounds will be locked down.

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