Loretto builds on education tradition, facilitates unique and critical training at Loretto Motherhouse

Some of us remember the malodorous smells which sometimes drifted in our direction when the nearby Blanford family operated a pig farm. After Loretto bought the house and acreage, the structure was renovated and used as a retreat and vacation house. After many years, the house was spruced up again before I moved in. After five years, Sisters Kay Carlew and Marie Lourde Steckler lived there and finally, Jessie Rathburn CoL with her husband, Andy, and their boys. When they left, the house was appraised and determined to have reached the end of its days.

Fire Chief Bobby Joe Mudd in the nearby city of Loretto, Ky., was contacted and he was immediately interested, saying that it would be an excellent educational tool. Very seldom do their new trainees get to learn from a burning building. Bobby Joe and some friends had to tear off all the metal siding on the structure and remove the roof shingles. Then the areas of study were determined: A: the second floor bedroom, half bath and attic; B: the first floor west two bedrooms; and C: the rest of the house, another bedroom, living and dining rooms, kitchen, bath and basement.

After much texting, phone work and delays, 12 fire departments responded and arrived with 45 fully geared students and 25 instructors ready for a unique learning experience. They had spent the morning in the classroom studying the procedures they would execute at the site.

Starting in the A section where some hay bales and wooden pallets had been ignited, the first of many teams went in to extinguish the flames, then assembled outside to discuss their performance while another team went in for the same drill after the room had been relit. When that area was finally consumed, the program moved to areas B and C. Each of the many teams had 25-30 entrances and exits and was rewarded with pizza and soda between turns. One fellow who had driven three hours to participate said, “I would do it again in a heartbeat.”

Some of the house had been constructed with oak logs, which helped to make the event last all afternoon and into the evening. The many fire trucks had to haul in water as there is no fire hydrant in that area.

A very grateful fire chief said, “You just can’t duplicate in a classroom the adrenaline rush of entering a burning building. We don’t get to practice with a real burning house, so this has been an invaluable teaching/learning session.”

To read all of the articles in the summer 2025 issue click here.