Amador County – The Jackson Fire Department on Monday announced a new schedule for fire training exercises at the county-owned building at 208 Court Street, which will include completely burning the structure.

Jackson Fire Chief Marc Crain said the new dates include training only on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 21-22, with smoke devices used inside the structure with minimal smoke affects on the neighborhood.

On Sunday, Jan. 29, live fire training will include burning the structure at 208 Court Street, the former Probation Department office, and will include a column of smoke for several hours. The burning depends on weather and wind conditions.

Chief Crain said “the Fire Department will exercise all possible precautions to reduce the impacts to the residents on Court Street.” He said “the Jan. 29 planned training burn of the building will be canceled if there are high winds or if there are other adverse weather conditions that would impact the burn training and the neighborhood.”

He said “there will be a traffic adjustment on Court Street during all three training days in order to accommodate fire engines, equipment and fire hydrant access requirement. That adjustment will require the closing of Court Street near the former Court House and rerouting traffic around the training site for approximately seven hours each day, starting at 7 a.m.”

Amador County officials in the announcement said the county “is currently planning to demolish the structure located at 208 Court Street as the structure is no longer viable to repair or restore. The city of Jackson has approached the county with the request to allow a live fire exercise by the city of Jackson in lieu of a standard demolition process.”

The county said “Jackson believes that this exercise will offer invaluable training to its firefighters, as well as the firefighters in neighboring municipalities. The county has agreed to this request in the interest of improving public safety.”

The notice said “the county has not identified its future plans for the site once the structure is removed.”

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.