FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Editor’s Note: This is part one of a two-part series on the city’s volunteer fire department.

“I want to go over some important things,” Fairhope Volunteer Fire Department Chief John Saraceno recently told a group of new volunteer firefighters at the department’s training facility behind Roy White Station No. 2 on Thompson Hall Road.

“One thing you need to make sure you can do is handle the alarm button. Don’t panic, but you’ve got to hold it down or the alarm won’t go off. When we hear that noise go off, we’re coming to get you.”

Saraceno showed how that alarm worked, which squealed loudly before he let the button go.

More than a dozen new and experienced firefighters went through a training exercise earlier this month at the department’s burn room and building, which simulates the experience of being in a smoky, heated building, Saraceno said.

“It gives them the experience of searching and dragging weighted dummies out,” Saracenoe said during an interview this week at Leo Keller Station No. 1, behind Thomas Hospital. “We’re in the process of upgrading our training center. We’ll be able to teach any course they they do at the state fire college. I hope to have it done by the first of the year or by early February.”

Saraceno emphasized the level of training that all firefighters receive in the department now, and the number of in-house certified trainers they have.

“The public perception is that we’re just a bunch of guys who like to ride in the trucks and play with sirens,” he said. “But nothing could be further from the truth. All of us have multiple training certifications, and all members of the department go all over the country for training.”

To get the burn room ready for the volunteers a couple weeks ago, Saraceno lit a hay bale on fire in an adjacent room on the ground floor, which filled the whole building with smoke and heat.

“OK guys, I’m going to take you in the burn room and just let you sit there and see how it feels,” one of the department’s trainers told two new volunteers, standing a few feet from the smoky hot room. “You need to see how hard it is to maneuver in your suits in there. Ya’ll remember to check on your partner before you go in.”