Entering a structure fire doesn’t look like the movies, said Oak Harbor Fire Chief Travis Anderson.

In real life, thick, black smoke fills the structure, burning at 1,500 degrees. Firefighters can’t see their hands in front of their face, let alone the person behind them. Attached to the hose and heaving heavy gear, firefighters’ communication is muffled by a breathing apparatus.

Firefighters from Oak Harbor, North Whidbey, South Whidbey and Naval Air Station Whidbey Island united last week to ignite two homes in Oak Harbor for live burn training. The owner, Presten Heights LLC, was going to tear down the buildings and allowed the firefighters to use them.

Firefighters can’t train in a working fire, Anderson said, as there are typically lives to save or property to salvage. Donated buildings such as this give the departments training opportunities that resemble real life as much as possible while following national safety standards, using fuel packets and controlling burnable materials so the fire only gets so big and so hot.

New firefighters tend to yell, thinking it’s more effective communication, but it’s more about breath control and radio positioning, Anderson said.

A big part of the recent training was to test new thermal imagers, he said. While in a normal environment, a person’s body appears much warmer than its surroundings compared to the air. In a fire, it’s the opposite.

The training gave the different departments a chance to practice together and understand each other’s tactics and communication strategies, running evolutions or drills to practice and improve upon skills.

“It went really well,” Anderson said. “They got a lot of evolutions in, a lot of good training.”

(Photo by John Fisken) Firefighters from Oak Harbor, North Whidbey, South Whidbey and Naval Air Station Whidbey Island conduct live burn training in Oak Harbor last week.