Live fire training takes place across Lee County

Thick, grey smoke filled the air in Fort Myers’ southward village.

Burning houses would usually raise some alarms, but on Wednesday, there was no emergency. It’s a part of a county-wide live fire training.

“Just like any other type of athlete out there, we’re TEPCO athletes. We have to build to get reps, sets and reps in order to get good at it,” said Fort Myers Fire Department Chief Tracy McMillion.

The Fort Myers Fire Department hosted the training for the 11 fire departments across Lee County.

Trained instructors enter the homes and light what’s called a “burn package.”

Once it’s lit, it’s go time.

“Crews come up as if it was real to actually work on their training,” said McMillion. “There’s no way that you can actually try to train like this in with just regular smoke but actually have real fire. It really just helps our crews on the line.”

This structure is one of the examples that firefighters trained in earlier today.

These are real-life working conditions in which firefighters have to operate every day.

Firefighters like Sean McNamara.

He said this training helps prepare for future calls.

“There’s a little bit of adrenaline rushing through our bodies, but it’s definitely like, calm, cool, collected energy. Because we’ve done this before. And events like this help us prepare for the real thing, the real deal.” said McNamara.

McMillion shared the sentiment.

“Something like this just allows us to actually hone our craft to get better at what we do, so feel to have a real structure like this in order to do that. It’s amazing,” said McMillion.