WEATHERSFIELD — Firefighters from several Mahoning Valley fire departments have spent the past four Mondays practicing putting out planned fires in a vacant house in Weathersfield.

McDonald fire Chief Fred Marcum said there have been planned burns in the house for the past four Mondays. He said a complete burndown of the structure is set for September.

“This training allows the firefighters to identify different burn scenarios while searching in a smoky environment. They have to do some attack scenarios where they are deploying a hose line. They are gaining different experience,” Marcum said

He said the training involves entering the home in three different groups and watching an instructor set a fire. Those taking part were 30 firefighters and instructors from Austintown, Berlin Center, Hubbard, Kinsman, McDonald, Orangeville and Weathersfeld.

He said firefighters are required to have a certain number of continuing training hours per year.

Marcum said the three-story Geodesic-style house of 3,000-square feet off Salt Springs Road was the property owner’s mother’s house that had water damage and is beyond repair.

He said few communities have a vacant house available for this type of hands-on training.

“An actual acquired structure is few and far between anymore,” Marcum said.

Marcum said the Mahoning County Career & Technical Center has a burn building they use.

He said the first two weeks was barrel burning training with hay and search and rescue inside the house. He said the third week was igniting a fire inside a room in the house, which continued Monday inside three rooms.

He said officials from McDonald and Girard have attended to observe what takes place at a fire training site.

“This helps educate them as to what we do on a daily basis. They can get a firsthand account of what we do,” Marcum said.

Brookfield Firefighter Brian Stanley, who is a fire instructor at Trumbull Career & Technical Center, said the firefighters see different scenarios of a fire being in a small room or in a main room of the house.

Stanley said there are two similar Geodesic style houses in Hartford. Brookfield helps provide coverage to Hartford.

“The firefighters are inside the home and see the actual growth of a fire in different rooms. There is a lot of hands-on training,” Stanley said.

Austintown Assistant fire Chief Tom O’Hara said having a live fire and real smoke shows what the firefighters will face when they go into a burning structure.

O’Hara said the training creates “a more realistic situation in a home” by experiencing real heat and real smoke.

He said in other situations, smoke machines are used. O’Hara said Austintown does not have a house available for practice.

“We are focused on improving the fire service as a whole for all departments,” he said.

Austintown firefighters Kelsey Musch and Justin Neff said they are helping other firefighters with the training.

“The hands-on training in an acquired structure is becoming more rare. When I was going through fire school, we only had one house to burn in. It’s hard to recreate,” Musch said.

Neff said there is a practice metal tower building that can have practice burns inside at the MCCTC in Canfield.

Before each firefighter went into the house, their vital signs were checked with water and other drinks available when they came back outside from the house to cool off from not only the heat caused by the fire, but the near 90-degree temperature outside.