Members of the Marblehead Fire Department were hard at work Tuesday afternoon, putting together an adjustable "roof prop" that will help local firefighters hone their venting skills.

The roof prop, which will be mounted on the side of the fire station on Pleasant Street, was designed with replacement partitions so firefighters could repeatedly saw panels out at varying pitches.

"The nice thing with this is prop is we can wench it up to whatever angle we want and replace the surface of it so we can have them working on gravel, tar and slate roofs," Fire Chief Jason Gilliland said.

The purpose of the ventilation training, Gilliland said, is to have local firefighters better-prepared when it comes time to open the roof of a burning building - a skill set the department's training officer, Capt. Charles Cerrutti, noticed needed some polishing.

"Capt. Cerrutti, he is just so in tune to this stuff and he looks to see where our weaknesses are and he said, after watching a couple of fires here, that our weakness has been venting," Gilliland said. "The place to learn this stuff is not on the roof of a burning building, it's right here."

The materials for the prop were purchased locally using money from the department's training fund, Gilliland said.

"This is important," Gilliland said. "These guys get their training at the academy but they don't get any actual practical experience with saws."

Firefighters are expected to begin training on the roof sometime next week.