FD3 takes training inside city park structure

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, March 24, 2026

A house designated as surplus within a city park was put to good use on Saturday by Clallam County Fire District 3.

Thirty-five career and volunteer firefighters conducted multiple live-fire drills throughout March 21 in the two-story home within the City of Sequim’s Gerhardt Park.

After proper permitting, the City of Sequim offered the house to the fire district for training purposes after they did not receive any bids to move the house at 1610 S. Third Ave. It was allowed to safely burn down Saturday afternoon after many training rotations.

“These types of trainings are truly valuable to the organization,” said Fire Chief Justin Grider.

“They are such value-added. We’ve got firefighters working on our staff that since they’ve been on, they haven’t had a structure fire to go to.”

“They’ve done a lot of medical calls, car crashes, but fires are few and far between, so when we get an acquired structure like this, to put that much realism and that much training behind it, it’s a valuable experience for them.”

Firefighters must participate in live-fire training once a year, Grider said, and they typically do that in training container boxes.

“But those are predictable because there’s only so many variables you can learn from those,” he said.

All firefighters conducted a safety walk-through in the house before the training began, including the fire district’s Explorer Scout Post 1003 of high schoolers who conducted their own training there without fire earlier in the week.

Grider said firefighters on Saturday were divided up in teams, and didn’t know which of the eight rooms were going to be on fire for each rotation.

They alternated between going upstairs and downstairs for the controlled fires, he said.

Large red letters, such as A for Alpha, were marked on the outside to help firefighters identify their locations.

Marcus Byrne, a first-year candidate with FD3’s Explorer Scout Post 1003, said he’s wanted to be a firefighter all his life, and that helping with the training helps him and others “see things in action.”

Fellow first-year recruit Adoniah Thomas said she’s interested in pursuing a line of work that helps save people’s lives, and that they received a lot of hands-on experience helping fill air bottles for firefighters and seeing their procedures to navigate buildings.

“I’m excited to watch them in action,” Byrne said.

City staff said the park is now available to the public following the training.

The home was about 80 years old and formerly owned by Anton “Toni” and Rosa Gerhardt who bought the property in 1973. They agreed to give it to the city in exchange for water services and that it remain a park after their deaths. Anton, at age 88, died in 2007, and Rosa died in 2013 at age 100.

The City of Sequim agreed in September 2024 to surplus the home and outbuildings as they were deemed unsafe. After an auction for the structures received no bids, the outbuildings were demolished and usable materials were salvaged and the remainder disposed of as solid waste.

The fire district and city agreed to the training exercises at no cost to FD3 in October 2025.

City staff took out various appliances, carpet and cabinets in December, and asbestos was removed in February by a private contractor.

Public outreach is anticipated to begin this spring for a Gerhardt Park Master Plan that staff anticipate completing by the end of the year.

Grider said the partnership between the fire district and the city has been “fantastic” and he thanks them for the donation and opportunity to train.