As flames licked the sky above West Main Street Saturday, everyone, fireman and neighbor alike, stood and watched.

East Pierce Fire and Rescue conducted a training burn that ended with the house located at 642 W. Main St. reduced to the cinders of its foundation and basement.

Firefighters went through nine evolutions of training exercises that became increasingly rigorous. Many of them focused on fighting fires localized to one section of the house, or conducting a search and rescue mission with dummies. The controlled fires were started by haystacks and a torch.

“We’re usually lucky if we can get one [training burn] a year,” spokesperson Dina Sutherland said. “There’s just so much you have to go through in permitting and approval.

“But this year we were actually able to get two,” she said, referring to a burn that took place on Sumner Cemetery property in January.

The West Main property was owned by Sunset Chevrolet. The car dealership’s management offered to donate the house for the training burn so that it could clear the land for a parking lot expansion, Sutherland said.

The end result was an afternoon spectacle that drew passersby to stand outside the caution tape and watch a house burn.