By Reid Forgrave
The Cincinnati Enquirer

GREEN TWP. - Firefighters will become firestarters Saturday morning. They will set a blaze, then watch an old motel burn to the ground along busy Harrison Avenue.

But for the Green Township Fire Department, the incineration of the 1940s-era Green Gables Motel is the culmination of five months of firefighter training in the two-level, horseshoe-shaped building.

When department officials learned the motel would be demolished, they saw a rare training opportunity. They've used the motel, room by room, to set controlled blazes, then have firefighters practice extinguishing the fires.

"In a real structure; you can do training like a real fire situation, things you can't normally do," said Lt. Scott Souders, in charge of training for the department. "So if your neighbor is going to tear down their house anyway, we might as well get some training in on it."

It's a common practice for fire departments to use soon-to-be-demolished houses for training. But burning such a large structure is a dream come true for training officers.

"That motel they got, it's absolutely invaluable for Green Township," said fire training manager Capt. Mike Reenan of Colerain Township, which has one of Greater Cincinnati's largest and most-used burn towers. "The most valuable training we can give our firefighters is with a true structure, not a burn tower."

The motel is now mostly charred on the inside, with melted window borders surrounding broken windows and holes punched through the roof.

Since April, when Green Township firefighters began using the motel for training, they've set fires in selected spots by burning wooden pallets.

Firefighters in full gear study fire behavior, which shows signs of impending problems such as backdrafts or flashovers. The indicator of a flashover, when scorching temperatures ignite entire rooms simultaneously, is when flames roll across the ceiling.

Then firefighters get to practice real-life firefighting tactics - removing heat and smoke from a structure by ventilating it, running ladders to windows for entry and rescue, busting down doors and windows

"Believe it or not, there's more to putting out a fire than just putting water on it," Souder said. "Every different type of fire you have to fight differently."

E-mail rforgrave@enquirer .com