NEW GLOUCESTER — Fire/Rescue Chief James Ladewig said during the next two months two empty buildings on Peacock Hill Road adjacent to the New Gloucester Veterans Memorial on Route 100 will be burned in training exercises on and off most Monday nights.
The first session for the 39 department members will take place Monday, April 25.
Ladewig said the training would begin using the department’s water truck rather than hydrants using first artificial smoke, then room by room burn exercises until the building is burned to the ground. Other fire departments are expected to participate in the sessions.
Meanwhile, to protect the Veterans Memorial Park complex, Jean Libby of the Veterans Committee said she and her family, with other volunteers, wrapped the head stones and cement base of the monuments to protect them from damage from soot.
The monuments, she said, would be uncovered during the first part of May and during the Memorial Day parade that culminates at Veterans Memorial Park.
She said McCann Fabrication, which donated the land for the Memorial Park for the Veterans Memorial several years ago, owns the dwellings.
Libby, a member of the New Gloucester Historical Society, said there is no historic value in the buildings. The land will be loamed and grassed afterward, she said.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
