- March 18, 2025
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The Longboat Key Fire Rescue Department found a way to make a positive out of a bad situation by repurposing soon-to-be demolished homes for skills training.
Department crews spent three afternoons in March practicing essential forcible entry skills like forcing doors open and breaking windows.
The department used houses on the island scheduled to be demolished and remodeled due to flooding sustained in Hurricane Helene. Training Captain David Eggleston, who recently joined the department in January, fostered the collaborative effort alongside other department personnel.
Assistant Chief and Fire Marshal Jane Herrin worked with the Planning, Zoning and Building Department to identify houses that were permitted for demolition.
Then, Eggleston reached out to the contractors in charge of the demolition to reach the homeowners, through which he gained approval to conduct the training.
“From a community standpoint, we’re thankful for the opportunity to turn a positive from a negative,” Assistant Chief Mike Regnier said.
The fire crews trained across three days, each crew spending an afternoon at a different house.
On March 13, one of the department’s shifts rendezvoused at a home on Russell Street that flooded during Hurricane Helene. The owners previously gave the department permission to use the home’s windows and doors for the training.
The crew came prepared with hand tools like a large circular saw, Sawzall, axe, sledgehammer and a firefighter’s Halligan tool, similar to a crowbar.
The unique opportunity allowed fire crews to practice critical skills that would be essential to force entry in fires or flooding events like hurricanes to rescue trapped individuals.
“This gives the guys the opportunity to practice skills,” Eggleston said. “They get to work through problems and talk through the process.”
Practicing these skills in a non-emergency scenario builds repetition and familiarity with the tools and standard procedures, so, in the event of an emergency, the firefighter paramedics are more prepared.
The houses Eggleston found were also good practice because some had hurricane-rated windows, like the one used on March 13. This means the windows have stronger glass that makes it more difficult to break.
One of the focus points of the training, then, was to break through these windows and pull victims safely.
A firefighter would begin by making a “purchase point,” a hole or fracture in the window made by one of the tools, like the Halligan.
Then, the crew members took turns trying different cutting tools to cut open the windows. They tried tools like a rescue chainsaw and a Sawszall, a circular rescue saw.
They learned on the spot about which tools were better for cutting through different materials, whether it was hurricane-proof glass or ripping apart the windowsill.
Once there was a cutout in the window, the crew could push the glass out. From there, they could find a blanket or similar object to lie across the bottom windowsill to make victim extraction safer or break apart the windowsill entirely.
Regular hands-on training is a part of the Longboat Key Fire Rescue Department’s annual routine, with all three crews required to attend similar training exercises, including vehicle extraction and live fire training at places like Manatee Technical College.
