By Kevin Allen Rappahannock News Staff Writer Smoke began

By Kevin Allen

Rappahannock News Staff Writer

Smoke began to waft from the comer of the second-story bedroom at about 10:30 on Saturday morning. Within a few minutes, flames had burst into action and were crawling up the walls and onto the ceiling.

The fire intensified inside the room, creeping into the hallway and building pressure that shattered glass windows. As the windows crumbled, smoke began to escape in a dark column that rose high into the December sky, rubbing a black smudge against an otherwise cloudless, blue backdrop.

Members of the Amissville Fire and Rescue squad were on the scene in mere seconds, ready to douse the flames - and start the next blaze. It was all part of live-fire training the team performed last weekend in an old house at Ibuchstone Farm. - Alan Zuschlag donated the house, which he said was in need of repair and would have cost as much to renovate as it would have to build an entirely new structure. Zuschlag said he planned to demolish the building anyway, so he decided to let the fire-and-rescue team practice on it.

Amissville Fire Chief J.B. Carter Jr. said the department ^receives such donations sporadically, but the structures are often bams or other small buildings, not two-story houses. Department volunteers usually complete two training sessions on a donated building; they ran through eight on Saturday.

Ten firefighters from Amissville and two from Flint Hill took full advantage of the opportunity.

“It was a veiy productive day,” Carter said. “It’s not very often that we get a house that’s in this good a shape.”

Carter said the firefighters tested the department’s new compressed-air foam system, which mixes water with foam and air to extinguish fires. The system is much fighter than a conventional water-and-air mixture, and requires one instead of two people to operate it. Carter said the system uses about 20 percent of the water a conventional system needs, decreasing