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A training exercise was conducted Saturday afternoon just outside of Washington.  Washington Fire Chief Tom Wide says they were holding a training exercise for new firefighters.  He says they had crews from Washington, Wellman, Packwood, Libertyville and several other small departments.

Wide says the house located across from Hy-Vee was donated to the Fire Department by the owner for the purpose of this training exercise.  Instructor Doug Kolkman says the firefighters were learning various skills such as ladder usage, doing search and rescue, hose handling, and single room fires.

Kolkman adds the day ended with the controlled house fire under the direction of Chief Wide.  He says those in the training will go through some hazardous materials training this week.  After the training is complete, they will become state certified fire fighters.  Chief Wide notes about 50 firefighters attended the training.