Two homes burned to the ground in Burien and dozens of firefighters stood around and watched.

It was part of a two-day training exercise for the Burien/Normandy Park Fire Department June 2-3.

For the training, two houses near the corner of South 160th Street and Ambaum Boulevard South, south of Burien Nissan, were stripped down and prepped for the exercise.

Schneider Homes of Tukwila offered the properties to the fire departments.

With the burning over, Schneider Homes begins work on 37 detached condominiums that will be finished next spring, said Murray Dick, sales marketing director for Schneider Homes.

Letting the fire department do the burn on the property has not delayed or set back work, Dick said.

Being able to have the live fire training is exciting for the firefighters and doesn't happen very often.

"They (the firefighters) were so excited about this, this is a good opportunity," said Burien/Normandy Park Fire Chief Mike Marrs.

"Houses to burn happen pretty rarely," said Lt. Mark Adler, training officer with the Burien/Normandy Park Fire Department. "It's a difficult challenge to pull something like this off, all the things have to be right."

Sometimes when houses are offered to the fire department for a training exercise, trees or neighbors are too close or there are other safety issues, Adler said.

Prepping the houses just to burn them down is no easy task either.

"It's such a huge undertaking to try and do this," said Adler. "There's a ton of preparation to the house just to get it to that point."

Carpeting is stripped out, furniture, flammable wall material such as plywood and wood paneling, and composition roofing is removed.

"Spent the whole week just boarding windows which restricts airflow to the house," said Adler. "Get it down to the basic sheet rock with no holes."

But once the property passes the inspection and the house has been prepped, it's time for the training.

A lot of the training is for the firefighters to get a sense of what it's like to be in a fire, said Adler.

"A lot of adrenaline is flowing and emotions are down," Adler said. "All those kind of emotions you have to learn to control."

"Getting the knowledge and experience of knowing how much water comes with training and real fire."

Firefighters try to get live fire training once a year, said Adler.