Burn exercise was not only smoke source

Editor,

In response to Mr. Fargher's letter and the citizens of Ronan:

On July 7, 2005, the Ronan Fire Department performed a live burn exercise on the old Morris Upholstery building on Round Butte Road.

This in my opinion is the best type of training for fire personnel, better than reading a book about fire and sitting and watching flames on the computer. Live burns teach us all the value of safety and teamwork as well as sharpen skills associated with pumper truck operation. It also informs us of the capacity of a given fire hydrant.

These values are absorbed and taken to the real scenario.

I am sure that you know the value of a live burn exercise from your many years as a Ronan Fire Chief, Mr. Fargher.

During preparation of this exercise we learned that transients were living in this building and that kids would play inside occasionally. Learning this prompted our decision to eliminate the problem before a real problem started.

At my residence (one block away from yours, Mr. Fargher) I did not notice any smoke problem, nor did any of my neighbors make any mention of this.

The smoke along the foothills east of Ronan was the result of 15 or so logging slash piles that were burning at the east end of Spring Creek Road. The inversion during the early morning hours held down all of the smoke from Lake's corner southward to Ronan. The burning building was not the only source of smoke during this time.

We respect our retired firemen such as yourself, Mr. Fargher. In fact, we gave all of the proceeds from our last fundraiser to support your city pension, which at this time is slowly falling toward the red.

It was not our intention to cause a public nuisance by performing this exercise. Our goal is to always better ourselves as a department and provide better service to our community.

We appreciate the support from our community and apologize if we or I have inconvenienced anyone.

Chris Adler

Ronan Fire Chief