By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – As she donned a full firefighting uniform minutes before entering a smoking, abandoned house off U.S. 31 near Shelby Baptist Medical Center on Dec. 4, Alabaster Mayor Marty Handlon said she wasn’t nervous “at all.”

“We’ve got a great group of guys here. I trust them with my life,” Handlon said as some of the city’s firefighters showed her how the equipment worked. “I think this is a great day for training.”

Handlon joined about 35 firefighters from the Alabaster, Pelham, Calera and Helena fire departments throughout the day as they conducted a live-fire training exercise at the abandoned house.

The idea came about when Harbert Realty Services Inc., which recently purchased the land adjacent to the Arby’s restaurant near the hospital to construct a new restaurant and office development, approached the Fire Department about using one of the abandoned houses on the property for training purposes.

After conducting a thorough safety check of the property, the department spent weeks preparing the building for a controlled burn, said Alabaster Fire Chief Jim Golden.

“It’s probably been about five years since we had this kind of training opportunity,” Golden said at about 9:15 a.m. as teams of firefighters took turns entering the smoke-filled house. “We have a lot of people contacting us about letting us use their property for a controlled burn, but there are a lot of safety standards that have to be met to ensure the structure is safe before we can even consider it.”

The U.S. 31 property met the safety standards, giving the department a rare real-world fire training experience while still remaining safe and controlled, Golden said.

“It allows us to create a realistic, yet safe, environment for our firefighters. It’s a great way to strengthen their skillsets,” he said.

At the beginning of the day, the department set and extinguished small fires inside the structure. As the day went on, the department gradually grew the fire until completely consumed the home down later in the afternoon.

In addition to providing realistic training, the fire also allowed Alabaster firefighters to work alongside Pelham and Helena firefighters, with whom they have a mutual aid agreement.

“We all try to train together every chance we get,” Golden said. “We appreciate the opportunity to be able to do this today.”