VIDEO: More than two dozen firefighters gathered at 3993 63rd Ave. in Columbus on Saturday morning for a house fire training burn.
Mike Janssen said his company, Janssen Heavy Equipment, based out of Platte Center, demolishes buildings in rural areas all the time. He said the house on 63rd Avenue started out like any of those jobs, until the property owners -- who are with Columbus Exposition & Racing (CER) -- had another idea.
"One of the members of the CER (asked), 'Why don't we have the house burned and then excavate what's left -- all the concrete and non-burnables,'" Janssen said.
That was about two months ago, but Columbus Fire Chief Dan Miller said the department was happy to take advantage of the offer for training.