Fire first broke out in a back bedroom, flames rolling over the ceiling and into a nearby bathroom. Several more fires were set in the house over the next few hours, the last one reducing it to rubble.

This was not arson. It was training.

With every one of those blazes on Saturday, Nov. 19, a crew of five firefighters entered the rundown rancher-style home, an unused building on the campus of the Sheppard Pratt psychiatric facility on College Avenue, in Ellicott City. Though firefighters in Howard County often train in concrete "burn buildings," the ability to get practice in the more life-like conditions is rare and, in recent years, had not been done at all.

"They can learn things here they can never learn in a concrete burn building," said Eric Proctor, a battalion chief with the county Department of Fire and Rescue Services. "Fire and smoke behavior is much different in an actual structure. This will help them in their experience."

This was the second "live burn" done in Howard County this year, and a third is scheduled for early December. The burns are the first live training exercises the department has held since 2006. The department stopped holding them following the death of a Baltimore city firefighter during a live burn in 2007.

"Even though we'd done it safely, we stopped it," Proctor said. "It (the death) put a chill in everyone's spine."

Instead, the department used its training facility in Marriottsville, and officials spent more than 18 months planning for a return to live burns.

Instructors and safety officials reviewed policies and standards. The fatal exercise in Baltimore had several fires burning at once inside a row house instead of just one. Before any flames would be lit in Ellicott City this past Saturday, the carpets in the home had been removed and holes in the wall were patched.

Window openings were partially covered with plywood that could easily be pushed away if necessary. Exits from the house were marked on walls with spray paint. Firefighters walked through the building beforehand to familiarize themselves with the layout.

Fires were set in one room at a time. Backup crews and instructors stood nearby during each.

Though such safety measures take away much of the unpredictability one might encounter in a fire, "you can still get meaningful things out of it," said John Jerome, an assistant chief with the department's education and training bureau.

The live burn proved beneficial to both veteran firefighters and those with less experience.A total of 25 of the department's more than 400 career and 300 volunteer firefighters participated Saturday.

"It's nice to do something without the stress of having to run around and do it really fast," said Chris Tingley, who has spent about a year with the Ellicott City Volunteer Fire Department. "Working in a structure that you see every day is kind of cool, especially one that you don't know the layout of. It simulates what you're actually going to see."

Richard Meneses, a master firefighter and paramedic who works out of Columbia, said he was eager to come out to train, even with his 13 years of experience. Some of the houses in his district have a similar layout, and every exercise allows him to keep learning.

"Usually when you go into a fire, it's 'Quick, let's put it out,' " he said. "Here we can kind of go in there and see the progression of how the fire gets worse — and then put it out."