DIXON – Local fire officials and a Sauk Valley Community College dean suited up in fire-fighting gear and braved smoke hotter than 1,000 degrees.

They sprayed water in short bursts while gray and red smoke danced across the ceiling and billowed out of the Phase 1 flashover simulator – a vehicle used to help firefighters and future firefighters learn to handle flashover, which is the ignition of all gases in a room.

The simulator is the type of device that will be used in Sauk’s new science fire program, which holds its first classes this month.