A firefighter sprays water off the roof of a building at the Dempster Training Center in Lawrence Dec. 13, 2011. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.)

Smoke billowed out of the windows of the residential building in Lawrence as firefighters struggled to complete their search and rescue mission. One body remained in the flaming building, and it was the team’s job to find it.

With their air tanks pumping, fire hoses on full blast and saws slicing ventilation holes in the roof, the team members finally located a figure in the bedroom and rushed with care back outside to safety. There on the blacktop, the firefighters laid the mannequin to rest.

The search and rescue mission was one of the many drills Mercer County fire companies can practice in the residential burn building at the Dempster Fire Training Center.

The facility, tucked away on Lawrence Station Road, features not only the burn building, made of brick and cement, but also a five-story high rise tower, car fire simulator, EMT training building and the administrative building, where classes are held and which houses the county’s Office of Emergency Management in the basement. All Mercer County firefighters are able to use the resources on the site for practice drills and classes for continuing education and certification.

Slackwood Fire Company firefighters were on the scene at the Dempster Center Dec. 14 for a holiday fire safety demonstration in the burn building. After dousing a Christmas tree with water, Slackwood firefighter Tim Megargle said the team uses the training ground a few times a year to practice live burns.

The most recent one was in November, when the team battled a live burn in the tower, which burns on the fourth floor.

“It was pump training for guys who wanted to learn how to pump the trucks. The guys inside were working on flare techniques, knocking fire down,” Megargle said. “It’s normal stuff that you do. You’ve got to put the wet stuff on the red stuff.”

One of the main resources at the center is its Firefighter 1 instruction, which is the course necessary for all volunteer and career firefighter state certification. The same training is required for volunteers, since the fire crews all work as a team.

“The volunteer people are just as hardworking as any career person. If you’re volunteering your time to put the amount of hours—they’re answering fire calls at 3 o’clock in the morning—putting in the kind of training that’s necessary,” said Jim McCann, the training center director. “That’s a passion ... I’ve been a volunteer for 28 years, so it’s something I just love. Some people play golf. I fight fires.”

The center first opened in 1989, spearheaded by the efforts of Captain John T. Dempster Sr., a career firefighter from Trenton. He retired from serving as captain in 1959 and became the Mercer County Fire Marshal who led the training for the county’s fire service. He died in 1980, and though he did not live to see the Dempster Training Center built, he learned in 1976 that it would be named after him.

The center is a division of Mercer County Community College, where students may complete coursework for an associate’s degree in Fire Science Technology or certificates in Fire Code Enforcement and Fire Officer/Administrator.

The standard Firefighter 1 program consists of about 170 hours of coursework divided between lectures and work on the training ground. The most realistic work the students do is in the residential burn building.

Safety regulations keep the Dempster Center from burning old couches or cars, so only hay is burned on the first floor. The second floor uses a propane system and a burning bed that simulates a flashover (when the room reaches a certain temperature and everything suddenly catches fire) and shuts off automatically after enough water is poured on it.

Upstairs, smoke machines blast thick, dark smoke into the building. Fire departments who come to train often complete about three or four evolutions each visit; an evolution is lighting a fire and putting it out, McCann said.

The burn buildings are also used as training for continuing education courses available to certified firefighters.

John Archer, fire director at the Robbinsville Fire Company, said the department has used numerous training resources at the Dempster center, but what’s important is making sure the team works together safely.

“You focus specifically on training safety. You make sure you have a safety officer appointed ... the worst thing [would be] if someone gets hurt,” Archer said.

Archer said many of the firefighters seek training there, and two new volunteers will be taking courses there in January.

The Mercerville Fire Company training officer Christopher Tozzi echoed the importance of safety during the training, and said the use of propane fire makes the training environment safe because the system can quickly be shut down and the building ventilated out.

He said the Mercerville department found that one of the training center’s benefits is being able to practice the coordinated effort of the engine company, which brings the hose to the fire, and the truck company, which searches for victims and ventilates the building.

Dempster has 50 instructors, one of which is Trenton resident Keith Greene, who teaches courses like Firefighter 1, forcible entry techniques and rope rescue among others. The Hamilton native has been a firefighter for more than 20 years, and began working as an instructor in 2008.

“It’s kind of a way to give back and bring up the next generation, but it also keeps my skills sharp ... I just enjoy passing it on and seeing the next generation,” he said.

In the Firefighter 1 course, Greene teaches the basics of what every firefighter needs to know, from advancing hose lines to search and rescue to ladder work. His other courses focus on more specific areas, like ways to break into a locked building in the forcible entry techniques course.

Greene, who is the lieutenant at Rusling Hose Fire Station in Hamilton, is also working on a new yearlong Firefighter 1 program through the Mercer County Technical School that also includes EMT training and emergency dispatch service. The program allows students to also take college credit courses.

The Pennington Road Fire Company in Ewing has been hard at work after taking a course called Pre-incident Planning. The course instructs firefighters on how to gather information on all township buildings, so the team knows before they arrive on the scene what type of environment the firefighters will be combating.

“I knew the class would be beneficial. It’s something the fire service has to do,” Pennington Road Fire Co. fire chief John Conti said. “Too often we walk into a fire blind. We don’t know what we’re dealing with. If you find out after the fire, it’s kind of too late.”

Conti said the fire company is in the process of pre-planning for all the buildings in Ewing, which includes finding out the structure, conditions and population. Firefighters will know the type of materials found in each building, gas and water shutoffs, the building’s construction materials, the type of occupants inside and more.

Spring 2012 courses are scheduled to begin the third week of January.

The Dempster Fire Training Center is located at 350 Lawrence Station Road in Lawrence. Phone: (609) 799-3245. On the Web: dftc.org