Mason County PUD No. 1 has partnered with the Union, Hoodsport and West Mason fire departments to schedule a practice burn at the PUD’s property at the corner of McReavy Road and Manzanita Drive in Union on Saturday, April 26th. The fire departments will use an old house on the PUD’s Manzanita Campus for practice drills and training, before fully engulfing the structure and burning it down to the ground. The house is scheduled to be demolished to make way for the construction of water storage facilities on the site later this year.
According to FD 6 Chief Clint Volk, this is the first time in his 18-year tenure at FD 6 that a house has been available locally for this type of training for his staff and volunteers. “Live fire training opportunities are so valuable for fire departments and for PUD #1 to put our training needs into their plan shows how fully committed Kristin and the PUD #1 team are to the communities of Mason County.” Following the completion of the permitting process, notices were sent to surrounding property owners and Chief Volk is going door-to-door to speak with nearby residents about the training exercise.
“PUD 1 prides ourselves on our community partnerships, especially when we get the chance to work on fun projects like this with other public agencies. This training idea seemed like a great opportunity to work with Chief Volk and his team to get one more layer of value out of this structure before it was demolished,” said Kristin Masteller, PUD 1 General Manager. “FD 6 and Hoodsport Fire & EMS are great partners to the PUD, and we already collaborate on safety trainings and airlifts, so we are excited to extend this new opportunity to help train the men and women that protect our employees and communities.” The training is scheduled to begin in the early morning of April 26th, weather permitting, and continue until early evening. To ensure the training exercises can proceed safely and without interruption, PUD 1 kindly requests that the public refrain from parking alongside or entering the Manzanita Campus.