Watertown restaurant serves a last...lesson

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - The old “Ruby Tuesday” restaurant off Arsenal Street was demolished last month to make way for a Chick-fil-A.

But before it was torn down, Watertown firefighters got inside for hands-on training in a building they didn’t have to preserve.

They practiced cutting through a roof, stabilizing walls and breaking down doors, skills they don’t get to use very often.

“Roof ventilation on flat roof construction, we don’t do a lot of it,” said Battalion Chief Ronald WAreham.

“So, having that ability to get up there and practice something that we don’t do often, it’s very high-risk, but low-frequency that we do, so the ability to go practice it was huge for us.”

Firefighters got more than 300 hours worth of training before the building was torn down. Almost every member of the department was involved.

It’s a training opportunity officials say comes along maybe once in a decade.

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