Firehouse Visit

Last weekend, the day after Aaron's birthday, the local firehouse had an open house event, so we decided to check it out. It was a fairly small event, but it was worthwhile for locals to attend, especially in light of the fires we've had nearby. There were several rows of tables set up inside the garage. (The fire trucks were either in the driveway or parked on the road nearby.)

Our electric company was at two of the tables. At one they were giving away Frisbees which Aaron loves. At the other one, they had a model of a section of street with overhead lines and a guy holding a metal stick in his gloved hands showing how you don't want to touch the wires. When he touched the metal stick to the wires, it caused a flame to appear. There were also several non-profit organizations related to things like fire safety, recycling and hazardous waste disposal. There were some service dogs, too, but one of the highlights were the "brush abatement goats" penned up in the brush near the fire station. There were about 65 (I overheard that number, I didn't count them). The goats were busy munching away, some of them jumping up to eat the leaves off the trees in their enclosure. And there was an adorable puppy running among them, too. I assumed from the trailer nearby with a phone number that you can rent the goats to help clear a fire break around your house.

The other hightlight of our trip was the fire hose. Two firemen were out on the side of the station with some orange cones to demonstrate how powerful the fire hoses are. Aaron got to help hold onto the hose. He seemed cautious at first.

But once he saw the power of the fire hose, he quickly got into it. He was calling out excitedly "Fall, fall!" when the traffic cones fell over. This is opposed to when he says "Uh-oh fall" when he thinks something shouldn't have fallen over.

Later, we got to tour the firehouse, which Thom and I found interesting and Aaron seemed to tolerate while being fed hop-hops. It wasn't really like I imagined a firehouse to be. It was only one story, so no fire poles. And they said that the firemen at the one station in the precinct that still has fire poles are not allowed to use them for liability reasons - they were getting banged up using them. And rather than bunk beds or some sort of group sleeping arrangement, there were 6 individual rooms with a single twin bed in each one.

At one point I asked what type of calls they get besides for fires, since I figure there aren't that many fires. They said 80% of the calls they get are medical. Everyone is trained as a paramedic and even though their station doesn't have an ambulance, they have paramedic equipment in the back of the fire trucks. And the one guy only knew of one call for a cat stuck in a tree. It was a palm tree.