Camp Pendleton and other Southern California firefighters trained at an abandoned naval weapons station Thursday, using technical firefighting and search-and-rescue drills.

The empty buildings offer firefighters from the Marine base and all over Orange and San Diego counties an opportunity to practice skills vital to saving lives in a real emergency.

“These houses spent a useful life of 30 to 50 years," said Tony Winicki, director of the naval weapons station that owns the now vacant Fallbrook Weapons Station homes.  "We now have new housing and want to put the taxpayers' money to good use and return the grounds to their natural state by reducing infrastructure.”  

Having a facility such as the naval weapons station where the fire department can conduct these multi-agency drills is important, said  Officer Bill Gick of the Camp Pendleton Fire and Emergency Services. “We are very fortunate to have had the structure donated,” said Gick, a civilian from San Clemente.  

"Positive pressure attack" was the first exercise conducted by the Camp Pendleton fire department. It worked in conjunction with the "vertical ventilation drill," which is needed to reduce heat before firefighters enter a building.

Positive pressure attack is a systematic release and removal of heated air, smoke and dangerous, toxic gas in a confined area.

This process creates a better environment for victims and firefighters stuck inside the structure.  

“The fire business is all about customer service,” Lt. Carlos Camarena of the Camp Pendleton fire department said as he rallied fellow firefighters before the drill.  

To simulate the smoke associated with the blaze, they burned a bale of hay in a 55-gallon drum.

The pressure attack was followed by the "rapid intervention crew" drill, which focuses on rescuing firefighters who have issued a Mayday after being trapped or injured in a blaze.

Carlsbad Fire Department Capt. Steve Hardy led the drill, which he said “improves situational awareness” inside burning buildings.  

The firefighters began the intervention-crew training by doing a “right-handed search,” paying close attention to what is around them. They stay in close contact so they are able to “keep tabs on changing conditions inside the building,” Hardy said.

For such a crew to be successful, “it is essential that the team have self-survival and forcible-exit techniques,” he said.  Search-and-rescue techniques were also demonstrated during the drill.