European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 14, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday october 14, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 9 firemen Curry victim out of smokehouse. Exterior or Bui id Inu i Fini Ilu to off. S45 photo by l emm ii Lewis i. Fire Muri Mariano Uphill Tuimil in gun mask. Zaragoza firemen build own smokehouse by Brenda Hosier staff writer Zaragoza a Spain firemen saved inc air Force up to $72,5000 this year not by pulling Oul fires but by creating smoke. The base firefighters pitched in and built themselves a smokehouse using the air Force s self help program. According to regulations every fire department is supposed to have a smoke House for training purposes said senior master set. Randy Wilke base fire chief. We did t have one. So i asked the Guys if they would be interested in building their own. No one objected so we got right to  the project s estimated contract Cost was 180,000 to $100,000, Wilke said. We did it for just Over s 7,500 thanks to the self help  Wilke said the station s 11 military and 50 Spanish firefighters helped in the planning or construction from choosing inc location Lollie laying of bricks. I have Guys Here who can do mortar work carpentry and All other Odds and ends jobs he said. So in some Way. Everyone got a piece of the  the men did inc work around their Normal duty Day a 24-hour shift on with 24 hours Olf. Most of the Guys worked during their o t time Wilke said. The building s Interior when com plete will look like a real House Wilke fireman Jose Luli Guttu pauses at the door to the smokehouse As a colleague checks he Interior of the building. Said. We arc going to put in movable Walls so we can train for base housing s eight floor  he said that will help eliminate the element of Surprise which is one of our purposes for  a drafting pit part of the project sits next to the smokehouse. It holds the i it 5,000 Gallons of water used to test pumps and practice drafting techniques he said. When conducting quarterly training smoke is pumped into the House using a special Generator. Firefighters then Are Able to practice getting people out of planes and vehicles entering smok filk a buildings and ventilation procedures. The building was designed to House some lire vehicles during the Winter months. We Don t have enough garage space for at our vehicles so this design will allow us to eel some other use out of the building Wilke said. Before the smokehouse was built fire men had to coordinate inc use of some buildings around the base Wilke said. But those people Aren t too pleased if you get water inside their building he said. There arc just a lot of restrictions when you have to practice thai Way. This building gives is the flexibility to train whenever we want because it s right Here where the men  the men arc Happy with their 2,211 Square foot building which sits adjacent to inc main firehouse and they Welcome the training it provides. Having this facility Means we can gel More realistic training said master sgt. George Chambers no has 11 years of firefighter experience. We also have a belter Chance 1o practice a variety of our skills using this building. We can train for Structure fires bomb threats hostage rescues and  one of the Spanish firemen said fire fighting is much better than laying mor tar but he is glad he helped bund the House because he can now train ind keep i firefighting skills Sharp. I m proud of the work these Guys have done Wilke said if we had t done it ourselves we May not have Sten it for a Long while particularly with Alt the budget