It was a frigid night with temperatures in the single digits. But it was a balmy 80 degrees on the front porch of a house south of Garland, and the living room was a toasty 1,280 degrees according to the Powell Volunteer Fire Department’s thermal camera.

In an unexpected turn of events, the house fire was actually caused by the fire department. The house that formerly stood at 373 Lane 9 was donated by Ray Green to be used for practicing putting out fires and was set to be burned to the ground on Saturday.

The fire department had done some practice burns inside the house on Friday, said Fire Chief Damian Dicks. Several “packages” were ignited and extinguished throughout the day and more were slated for Saturday.

“We just missed some embers that were in a package and that caught the room on fire,” Dicks said.

Fire crews were called back to the scene shortly after 1 a.m. Saturday, roughly four hours after practices were completed — but this time, the fire was for real.

The house was completely engulfed in flames, so the crew decided to just let it burn to the ground while hosing down nearby trees to prevent potential fire spread.

“That was the plan all along, to burn it down,” Dicks said. “It was just sooner than we wanted to.”

Homes are often donated to the fire department for practice, a win-win situation for the homeowner and the department. The homeowners get rid of property they no longer want, and fire crews get to hone their skills in putting out flames.

“We appreciate when people are willing to do that because it is the best way to simulate a live-burn to practice on,” Dicks said. “We are always looking for something.”

Crews stayed at the scene until about 4:30 a.m. Saturday and the house smoldered throughout the weekend. Foam training was done on what was left of the structure, Dicks said.

“We definitely took full advantage of every bit of it,” Dicks said.