Sable Homes and Leighton Township Fire Department Collaborate on Emergency Training Exercise at Paris Ridge Estates in Caledonia
Paris Ridge Estates located in Leighton Township, south of 108th Street and west of Second Street, is currently home to over 130 families and when completed will have nearly 200 single family homes. As more families move into the community, which is in the desirable Caledonia Community School District, Sable Homes and the Leighton Township Fire and Rescue Department collaborated on an emergency training exercise on March 7.
“As we build this new home community in Leighton Township, we want everyone to feel safe,” said Bryan Burnham, general manager, Sable Homes. “We’re glad to have this opportunity to work with fire and rescue to help make Paris Ridge Estates a safe and welcoming community.”
Following a short presentation, at the Leighton Township Fire Station, the exercise moved to the Paris Ridge community. During the onsite training, rescue personal gained an understanding of Sable’s various floor plans, construction of the homes (where bedrooms and mechanicals are located), and developed best practices for responding to and stage emergency equipment in the new neighborhood.
“To collaborate with a developer and learn about their structures and layouts is not common in rural communities. We take our training seriously and are grateful that Sable Homes’ team is willing to give our personnel a behind the scenes look, so we know how to best respond if an emergency were to occur,” said Cody Williams, Leighton Township Fire Department training sergeant.
This is the first time Sable Homes has been involved in this type of partnership. They’re open to helping other local fire departments participate in similar training in the future.
“Having the fire department seal of approval is always something that people want, whether it’s a necessary for building code, fire code, or just for peace of mind,” Burnham said. “And the feel goods after we build a house, we know that our homeowners are safe.
“We’re doing everything we can. Obviously we focus on building safe homes. That’s our motto. So from that aspect, it’s the next reasonable step to just have the fire department take a second look. And that gives them the benefit of knowing the homes inside and out, just like we do.”
Williams said partnering with Sable Homes to go through a house that’s in the building stage gives his department a hands-on opportunity.
“Just with commuting and the time it takes and how fast houses do go up in fire, every second counts when those tones drop,” Williams said. “So anything that we can do to give ourselves that little bit of an advantage on scene, we’re going to take.
“We run all sorts of different calls in this area. We go into different houses, but very rarely do we get the opportunity to walk into houses that are in progress of being built and fresh houses that aren’t moved in yet, and be able to look at this from more of a tactical perspective of ‘Hey, what are we going to do in this scenario?’ and get a better idea of what that house looks like,” Williams added. “Most of the time we’re so focused on the call and why we were paged out to that address, that we don’t just start walking around homes and seeing the bedroom layout and seeing where disconnects are and where connections are. We don’t do that unless we have to. So this is an opportunity for us to get ahead of that and hopefully have a better knowledge of how homes work as a whole.”
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