Just wanted to add some detail to my question above.
First, we purchased the property hoping to rehab it and rent it out. So, we did file and pay the required fees at closing to change the house to rental space.
I'm also not trying to claim the full price of the building. My charitable deduction would only amount to $7,000 to $10,000. (The house itself was probably only worth $90,000 to $100,000.) But your answer made it seem that I can't claim a donation that is not cash or material. Couldn't this be a donated service - allowing them to use the structure over and over again for training?
Also, the value of their taking the house down is minimal. We had to do all the preliminary work of striping the building of everything - and I mean everything - that was recyclable. And after the burn, we needed an excavator to clear all the debris and a special service to haul it all away to a proper disposal area. If they hadn't used the house for training, we would have knocked it down our selves.
It was a lot of work - but we had a lot of fun watching and working with all the fire departments. Thanks for the opinions. Very helpful!
