SOUTH THOMASTON — Sandy Weisman's decision to take down an old house she bought from friends in 2010, located on the former Terstiege sheep farm on Split Rock Road in South Thomaston, was ultimately a gift that benefited dozens of neighbors and more than 50 firefighters.

It was actually many small gifts, but the kind that leave lasting impressions. And for someone in the future, it could mean a life saved.

The friends and former owners, Barbara and Walter Reitz, live just down the driveway from Weisman's new home and artist's studio complex. They were with Weisman Saturday, watching the activities as firefighters ignited and extinguished fires inside the old home she donated to them.

"They have been here multiple times, getting the house ready, and last week they were here practicing with lots of ladders," said Weisman.

How did it come to be that 50 firefighters were in her dooryard Saturday? It began when Weisman decided she wanted to build a new house and artist community with three studios on the property. Considering her choices for the existing structures, she learned that the white house with vinyl siding, which was perpetually spewing smoke Saturday, was going to be costly to repair.

In addition to scads of work needed inside the house, there were plumbing and septic issues, and ultimately taking the old house back to where she wanted it was going to cost a lot of money.

"There were too many issues so I decided to let it go and put the money into the artist's studio, instead," said Weisman.

She said she offered the house to neighbors, if they wanted to move it at their expense to another location. But tha also proved too costly an option to undertake, so she started getting figures to have the house torn down and resulting rubble removed.

"A Port Clyde person donated a house to the fire department there and I started thinking about my choices," said Weisman. "I made contact with Bryan [Calderwood], the fire chief here in town. He came out and looked at it and said it was a good house for them because it didn't have a chimney and it was far enough away from the other buildings."

After making her decision to donate the house to the fire deparment, Weisman said she invited neighbors to come into the house and take things they wanted to have or could use in their own homes.

The neighbors took the aluminum windows, the stove and the refrigerator, even the toilet, all for free.

"The Ilvonen women, who grew up across the street, made a day of it, coming in with their headlamps because there weren't any lights to turn on," said Weisman. "They had such a grand time going through the house, taking things apart and collecting door knobs and other memorabilia from their childhood."

While Weisman worked to get the house cleared of salvageable items, Calderwood set about preparing for a live fire drill that would involve firefighters from eight Knox County communities lighting and extinguishing 16 successive training fires. If it all worked as planned, the house would withstand the repeated fires before a final conflagration would be allowed to burn it to the ground.

"This is the second time in my 20 years with the department that South Thomaston has had a burn building donated," said Calderwood. "Nothing went wrong and that was due to the preparation we put into it."

Assisting Calderwood in that preparation and planning for Saturday's training were South Thomaston Deputy Chief David Elwell, Asst. Chief Jerry Harjula and Capt. Todd Butler, as well as Thomaston Lt. Ben Adams and St. George Asst. Chief Chris Leavitt. They, and South Thomaston firefighters, spent time prepping the house. Every Monday night in September prior to the live fire they were joined by St. George, Owls Head and Thomaston firefighters for other training at the structure.

The multi-town firefighters worked to familiarize themselves with the layout of the house and refresh their skills, both vital steps to ensuring safe training when the fires are real. One night was spent training on self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), which included search and rescue techniques. Another night was hose advancement and simulating fire in different locations in the building. A third night was for ventilation, then rapid intervention team (RIT) training for firefighter down drills and a final night to walk through everything that would be covered at the live fire training at the end of that week.

Two days before the actual training, notifications were made to neighboring homeowners of the impending live fire training.

Beginning around 8 a.m. on Sept. 29, 50 firefighters descended on Weisman's property, 30 of whom were broken into two battalions of 15 people. From there, the 15 were organized into three- or four-person groups, with each group taking turns practicing attack, back-up, ventilation and RIT. After each battalion had completed its evolution, firefighters would rotate into rehab, where their vital signs would be checked and they would rest and hydrate.

Each group was assisted in its task by an instructor, who helped them safely complete their task and ensured everybody stayed safe. The instructors, including Elwell, Harjula, Butler, Adams, Leavitt and St. George Firefighter R.J. Polky, also rotated topics every other fire, giving them a chance to work with different people from different towns and practice their own skills. Overall, safety was manned by Randy Elwell from the St. George Fire Department. It was his job to constantly prowl around the building and alert Calderwood, who was acting as operations commander, so he could make a correction or move people where they were needed more.

Meanwhile, Weisman stood on her porch and watched with the Reitzes, joined by other neighbors and friends, who ambled over throughout the day.

The first four fires were lit and extinguished like clockwork, with roof and second-floor window venting helping clear the house of smoke and steam after the attack team found each fire and doused it with water.

Manning the pumps and shuttling water back and forth to keep the tanks on the fire grounds full were Thomaston firefighters Tony Leo and Phil Netzorg, as well as Owls Head firefighters Jimmy Philbrook and Elliott Scott, among others from St. George. Rockland EMS, including Joe Moore, provided EMS coverage for the day.

As the fifth fire was lit and the crews were resetting their gear, checking masks and turnout gear for any skin exposure and turning on air tanks, the heat started building inside the house. At that point, fire was beginning to grow on the second floor, and black smoke seeping from the attic vent started growing more intense.

A charge went through the fire grounds as all eyes turned anxiously toward the roiling black smoke and darted down to scan the crews getting ready.

"No pressure on you guys, but if you don't save the building the rest of us don't get a chance to," said Rockland Fire Chief Charlie Jordan over the crowd to the organizing attack crew at the front door of the house. They did their job, and the house remained standing for more fires.

A total of eight fires were lit and extinguished by noon, when the entire group broke for lunch, which was provided by the South Thomaston Emergency Auxiliary, including Janet Harjula and Angie Coppola.

Starting back up after lunch, Calderwood said they got through six more fires before they had to stop around 2:30 p.m.

"The reason the evolutions were stopped is the house had become unsafe for the firefighters and instructors to be inside training," said Calderwood. In total, 14 fires were lit and extinguished, providing a lot of training for firefighters likely happy for the upcoming break in the action.

At that point, everybody pulled back all the hand lines and equipment and all the people were accounted for. Lines were then set up to protect Weisman's other buildings around the home, and the house was lit on fire a final time and allowed to burn to the ground.

Five hours later, around 8 p.m., Thomaston and South Thomaston fire departments cleared the grounds and returned to their stations to start the cleanup process.

"My overall assessment of the day is that it was awesome," said Calderwood in an email Sunday morning. "With the proper plans and organization that we put into this training, it made the day go very smoothly."

In addition to extending his thanks to all of the individuals, towns and organizations involved in the fire training, Calderwood said he was thankful for Weisman's donation.

"Once the inspection of the house was conducted and it was explained to Sandra what would be done during the live training and what we wanted to do for training prior to the live fire, Sandra graciously donated the house to the department," said Calderwood. "Our last thank-you goes to Sandra Weisman, because without her donation this training would have never happened."

Editorial Director Holly S. Edwards can be reached by email  at hollyedwards@penbaypilot.com or by calling 207-706-6655.