An old, rundown house in the Town of Niverville became useful again as a training site for the local fire department.

“We can put an artificial smoke machine in here. We can use our saws to open up the roof. Once it's close to being time for it to come down, we can do a variety of training things that we're not normally allowed to do in a structure, so these acquired structures are perfect in our community and we're very grateful that we've been given the opportunity to use this,” says Niverville Fire Chief Keith Bueckert.

“We're going to use this on all of our Tuesday training nights up until we can't use it anymore. We train every two weeks. We might put a couple of weekends into this,” he added.

The house at 87 4th Avenue is owned by developer Luke Wiebe, who turned it over to the local fire department on Wednesday. “I think it's going to be really good for the community of Niverville to know that their fire department can be putting to use a good old rundown house like this that will eventually be torn down.” He plans to clear the lot in the fall to make way for new development.

The house has been around since the 1950s and was a rental property until a year ago. Wiebe says it is not customary to turn over property as a practice structure for fire departments, but he is planning to encourage his fellow developers to consider the idea.