INSTRUCTORS SIMULATE METH FIRE

DELTA -- It took only seconds for a simulated methamphetamine lab to become a raging inferno Thursday.

That suited fire training instructor John Sachen just fine, who spent hours preparing the 7-foot by 8-foot wooden structure to be burned. The mock lab included a blue-jeaned dummy standing near a makeshift counter.

Fueled by ether and alcohol, the fire raced through the structure. At Sachen's direction, firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze leaving a blackened shell of a room.

Sachen handles firefighter training for the Delta Fire District and is an adjunct instructor with the University of Missouri's Fire and Rescue Training Institute.

Sachen and a handful of area firefighters taped the exercise outside the Delta Fire Station for use in a training course designed to help firefighters around the country deal safely with meth lab fires.

The Fire and Rescue Training Institute is developing three training courses addressing meth labs. Sachen said the project is being funded through a federal grant.

Thursday's simulated meth lab fire will be included in video segments that will be part of a Power Point computer program.

"There is a lot of folklore and voodoo out there that is not true," Sachen said as he readied for the fire.

Some people mistakenly think the entire house will blow up in a meth fire. Others don't think there is anything to worry about. Both are wrong, he said.

Meth typically is manufactured in poorly ventilated homes. The manufacture of the illegal drug involves dangerous chemicals like ether and sulfuric acid, Sachen said.

Several meth lab fires have occurred in Southeast Missouri, including some in Scott County. An explosion at a meth lab in Bollinger County killed a man in 1998.

Jim Bollinger, Marble Hill's fire chief, is helping to develop the training courses.

Bollinger said rural fire departments in the Cape Girardeau area have well trained volunteer firefighters. The concern, he said, is for small, rural fire departments whose firefighters don't receive training.

Sachen said the goal is to train firefighters to recognize the signs of a meth fire, such as chemical odors that are prevalent.

Those who cook methamphetamine often seal spaces around windows and doors with tape in an effort to keep the chemical smells from escaping.

They typically use an electric skillet or other heating unit in manufacturing the drug.

"These people are not chemists," said Sachen. Spilled chemicals can be found on their kitchen counters or other work areas, and in makeshift containers.

Firefighters are taught to say out of burning meth labs and await help from special drug and hazardous chemical response teams.

But firefighters can fight meth fires from the outside, extinguishing the blazes with water as with other structure fires, Sachen said.

"We are teaching them how to approach them at very low risk," he said.