Watch: Smoke without fire at Shropshire crews' training exercise
For most of us fire drills simply involve congregating outside in the car park - but for firefighters it's a different story, as they pumped a Shropshire country cottage full of fake smoke.
Crews from Craven Arms fire station rushed to the farmhouse on Corvedale Road but in this case there was smoke without fire, as it was strictly a training exercise.
Watch manager Jason Norgrove was among those putting on the breathing apparatus and entering the smoke-logged building.
Speaking before the exercise, he said: "The property is quite close to the road, so we had to inform control as I expect we'll get a number of calls about it."
He said the whole thing was treated like a regular call-out, with about 10 firefighters waiting for the call back in Craven Arms.
For training purposes he handed over the officer-in-charge role to a junior colleague, who had to assess the situation after being briefed by officers on the site and looking at the building at Corfton Farm, near Diddlebury.
Mr Norgrove said: "He assesses the risks and hazards such as the possibility of a back-draft or flash-over, then formulates a plan of how he's going to extinguish this 'fire'."
He said they took heavy hose reels in with them, as they normally would, but they were not turned on as it was a "dry drill".
They then had to find dummies of various sizes in the thick smoke to "rescue", all under the watch of other officers with thermal imaging cameras who gave feedback on their performance afterwards.
Finally the cottage was emptied of smoke and left just as it had been found.
The empty cottage is on the land of farmers Stephen and Caron Povall who agreed to let crews use it after retained firefighter Adam Streatfield, who does building work for them, asked about it.
Mr Povall, 50, who is a parish councillor for Diddlebury, said: "We thought it would be a worthwhile thing to do, it might help save someone's life in the future."
A similar exercise was held at the DMS Plastics offices on Ludlow's Eco Park recently, with firefighters from Ludlow and Craven Arms.
The fire station is always recruiting for on call firefighters who train every Wednesday. Anyone interested can contact Mr Norgrove on 07816 293316.
