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Firefighters go into every blaze expecting the unexpected, and even their training exercises can take a sharp turn, as a group of ACT firefighters discovered on Thursday. ACT Fire and Rescue was burning down a government house marked for demolition in Monash as part of a training exercise when a large part of the roof collapsed unexpectedly while firefighters were inside tackling a blaze. The series of live and controlled burns was designed to test the leadership of nine senior firefighters, who were being promoted to the rank of station officer, by giving them the chance to take charge of crews in four real-time fire scenarios. The crews were tasked with confining each fire to the room it started in, and the nine new station officers will return to the Kneeshaw Street house on Friday to try and determine how their colleagues started each of the blazes. ACT Fire and Rescue commander Glenn Brewer said no one was injured when the roof fell in on a bedroom unexpectedly during the first real-time scenario. "It just goes to show how dangerous these things are," he said. "Whether it’s training or otherwise, there’s always that element of risk associated with the job we do as firefighters." Commander Brewer praised the response of the crews tackling the blaze at the time, saying they "did everything they needed to do". "Once we realised there was a major change in the fire conditions, we were able to arrange evacuation for the personnel that were inside," he said. "That’s what we train our people to do, and that’s what happened." Commander Brewer said while the Emergency Services Agency had a good training centre in Hume, having the opportunity to train in a real house was invaluable. In a bid to make the training scenarios as real as possible, ACT Fire and Rescue picked up second-hand furniture to fill the disused home, which Housing ACT made available for the exercise. One firefighter also played the role of an angry and un-cooperative homeowner, arriving home during the exercise to test how firefighters handled the situation. Commander Brewer said the exercise was also a good opportunity to remind people of the heightened risk of fires during winter, when appliances like heaters and clothes dryers were being used frequently. "It’s probably our busiest time of the year for house fires," he said. "We had about 25 structure fires during the month of June, which were mainly kitchen fires caused by people not paying attention while they were cooking. "We encourage people to ‘don’t stop looking while you’re cooking’."

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