Carrboro firefighters practice in abandoned building

An abandoned, repeatedly vandalized building in Carrboro was demolished in mid-November, but not before the town’s fire department had some fun with it.

The small cinder block structure on the future site of Martin Luther King Jr. Park had been boarded up by police for years, but vandals frequently pulled the boards off and congregated in the building.

 “We talked as a staff. And since boarding up wasn’t working — people were still breaking in — the building was going to be demolished,” Public Works Director George Seiz said.

The construction stood among a group of modestly sized buildings once used as part of a farm property. While in the past few years the Parks and Recreation Department has utilized the other structures as storage space, this one’s inconvenient location in the back of a field rendered it useless.

The Parks and Recreation and Public Works departments decided Nov. 1 to tear it down, but since the demolition was planned for Nov. 18, the groups figured the fire department could use the site for training in its final days.

Fire Chief Travis Crabtree was notified, and on Nov. 13, 14 and 17, shifts of Carrboro firemen practiced specialized training techniques in the building.

The crews spent much of their time performing different entry-gaining methods on the structure — which measured 12 feet by 20 feet by 10 feet — including breaching its door and using chain saws to cut holes in its wood-shingled roof.

“The event was successful,” Crabtree said. “They learned a cinder block building is not near as hard to get into as one might think, with the proper tools.”

The department also practiced ventilation techniques and taking down walls.

“We pretend like there’s a person in there that’s trapped to save their life,” Crabtree said. “Making the proper hits, we can keep the structural integrity intact while making advancement into it.”

Crabtree said the department would have burned the structure and practiced live fire training, but that would have required giving 20 days of advanced notice to the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

The firefighters, despite the lack of actual fire, still managed to stay in character during the three days.

“We worked hard to try to do our job and make it as realistic as possible,” Crabtree said. “The person we want to save could be right behind the wall.”



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