... a chain saw?
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It was the Seattle Fire Department, conducting a training exercise on the roof of a house about to be demolished. I could see their hook and ladder parked in the alley beyond the houses. From the sidewalk, I couldn't see what the guy with the chain saw was cutting.
Jerry, one of the firemen, came over to talk to me. He explained that they were practicing cutting a hole in the roof to "enlarge the chimney." This wasn't a rescue exercise; the ladder I saw them carrying on the roof was just to get up there--not to put into the hole they'd made.
The owner had donated use of the house for training to the Fire Department prior to demolishing it--a rare privilege, he told me. The Fire Department has props for training firefighters to cut holes in roofs, but they aren't very realistic. Preparation for the exercise had included asbestos mitigation.
They weren't going to use the inside of the house for training, because homeless people had broken into it; it had broken glass and other problems.