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If traveling on Kentucky Route 627 and headed toward Bourbon County on Wednesday morning, drivers may have noticed the sight and smell of smoke. 

Yet the situation was completely under control.

At Station 3, located at 1100 Fortune Drive, the Winchester Fire Department was participating in numerous drills and training exercises that will benefit operations. 

“[Station 3] is our special operations building…as well as our burn tower, where we do the majority of our hands-on training,” said Winchester Fire Department Chief Chris Whiteley. “We’d like to do two a year if nothing else, just to…try to incorporate all the shifts to get on duty and off duty personnel.” 

Working on different scenarios one was to understand fire dynamics. 

This involved understanding fire behavior, thermal saturation, getting used to conditions of heat, and more – all taking place in a controlled setting. 

Also, search and rescue drills took place in the two-story training facility – acquired through a grant – located at Station 3. 

“We tried to create a lot of smoke within the structure,” Whiteley added. “We did search and rescue with up to three victims…a lot of repetitive training [and] a lot of remedial training. [It’s] really good for us.” 

Though the outdoor winter weather may have been blustery, conditions offer new understanding. 

“It’s good to get the fire behavior when it’s winter time,” Whiteley added. “We like to do [training] at night as well, just to get familiar with the generators, lights, and the change in temperature and [observe] how…equipment is going to react.” 

These are only a few of the questions firefighters have as they conduct training. 

When understanding the chemistry of fire behavior and dynamics, they also take into account combustion; described as the combination of fuel, oxygen, ignition, and a chemical chain reaction.

Having a deployment model along with strategies and objectives to understand how to tactically resolve the matter are other priorities. 

And, along with determining the source of the fire – using information such as smoke to make such an answer – to determine how aggressive one should be, taking into account the victim profile and their location is also a necessity. 

Plus, the firefighters were not alone. 

Different city staff, including Mayor JoEllen Reed, City Manager Bruce Manley, and Human Resources Director, braved the heavy winter weather to show their support. 

Asked what he looked to see from staff, Chief Whitely further elaborated. 

“I got an opportunity to take our thermal imager and observe. [I] saw some things that we need to tighten up….but at the end of the day, it’s a training tower,” he said. “It’s just [about] breaking it up, making sure we’re challenging ourselves, [and] not setting ourselves up for failure or demoralizing anybody.” 

He concluded. 

“[It’s] just a great day to be a Winchester fireman!” he said. “A lot of these guys are on their day off, and we’re out here like a bunch of brothers and sisters.”