A Visit To The Fire Station

One of Julian’s school friends had a birthday party today - and not at the usual sort of places either!

The party was at the Woodinville Fire Station - what an incredibly brilliant idea!

The day started out in the fire station’s classroom when Lieutenant Davis showed a kid friendly instructional video and then one of the Fire Fighters donned all of his gear, including the breathing apparatus. To be quite honest, this was the first time I had seen a Fire Fighter fully kitted up, so I asked how much it all weighed. About one hundred pounds apparently, but much heavier when it all gets wet…

However, Lieutenant Davis had an alteria motive for doing this. Apparently a big problem with rescuing kids from a burning building is that a Fire Fighter can appear quite scary with all their gear and their voices sounding Darth Vader’s, plus the fact that the kids are already freaked out by the fire. Sometimes they run and hide from the very Fire Fighter that is attempting to rescue them…

So he got on hands and knees and crawled around in front of the kids, letting them hear his weird voice and having them touch his hand.

That one thing was probably the most valuable part of the day.

Anyhow, after that everyone got to go outside, play with fire hoses and sit in fire trucks. We also got a great tour around the station, including the dorm rooms and gym (which included a large plasma and an Xbox 360).

A great day, topped off with them extending the ladder truck’s one hundred foot ladder whereupon one of the Fire Fighters climbed all the way to the top!

Superb!