Armstrong announced Friday it will donate one of the three houses it bought on North Main Street for fire training.

The public is invited to watch the exercise, which will be from 8 a.m. to noon Feb. 23, when firefighters will extinguish a series of fires set at 425 N. Main St.

The exercise is a rare opportunity for city firefighters and students of Butler County Community College's public safety program to use a home in an urban setting for practice.

"(Real buildings) are getting harder and harder to come by. Any time you get a real building it makes the training much more realistic for students," Butler fire Chief Larry Christy said.

Controlled fires will be set in different areas of the house by different sources and city firefighters will extinguish them using compressed air foam, which the city has used for about three years. Made up of soap, water and compressed air, it can put out fires faster and with less water damage.

Although BC3 has a practice structure, firefighters can only use water inside.

Once the fires are out, teams of students from BC3's advanced arson investigation class will investigate what actually occurred. They will create and compare hypotheses as part of their training.

Armstrong will videotape the exercise, and the footage then can be used for later training.

Armstrong spent $300,000 for properties at 421 and 425 N. Main St., to level them for a parking lot.