An Awesome Fire Hall Tour

This morning we toured one of our local fire stations, it turned out to be extra exciting.
                
We started the tour meeting Firefighter Greg.  He told us some rules for our tour.  When we enter the truck area we would be meeting on a mat and if the alarm was to go we were to stay on the mat to be safe.  We would learn later that this was a bit of foreshadowing.

Greg was teaching us about fire safety, matches, burns and smoke detectors, when the fire alarm rang.
                    

We watched as the firefighters quickly prepared and got in the truck.
       
It was exciting to watch the firefighters come out of their dressing room and rush out to the truck.  Watching both men and women getting ready offered us the chance to have a discussion about why we say firefighter, instead of fireman now.
                      
We had just started back to learning about the fire truck when a second alarm rang.
 
We safely walked back to the mat and watched more firefighters get ready.

Both firefighters that were giving us our tour had to quickly dress, get into the second truck and leave.
                
               
                 
Luckily another firefighter stepped in and let us tour through the truck.

By the time we finished touring the truck the second truck called out returned and we were able to see a demo of all the parts of their uniform.

 
Before moving outside to play with the hose we practiced “Stop, Drop and Roll”.

                    
Then time for the most fun part of the morning, using the fire hose.  We learned how to turn it on and off and aim it at a truck parked in the lot.
                    
When we were ready to leave firefighter Greg gave each of the children their own fire hats to take home.  It was a very memorable tour.

Emergency Vehicle–Ambulance

Another exciting morning when an ambulance came to visit.
Jason, the paramedic, brought in his Jump Pack to show us some equipment.
  
We learned that there are two sizes of blood pressure cuffs; one that was too big was for the grown-ups, the other was the perfect size for children.
  
We saw a tool he uses to see how fast a person’s heart is beating.  It clips on your thumb but doesn’t hurt.
  
        
Then it was time to checkout the ambulance.  There is a lot of equipment in that small space.  Jason asked if anyone has had an ambulance visit their house.  There were a few stories but mostly from the grown ups.

We made comparisons between all the vehicles we have seen so far.  The ambulance, police car and tow truck all have flashing lights.  The drivers part,
in all three, had lots of switches and buttons.
            
       But the most fun was pushing the button to turn on the siren.

Emergency Vehicles Visit

            
After making our fruit box vehicles we were fortunate to have a couple
             of visits from people that work in our community.
          
    The first was the RCMP.  They brought two cars for us to investigate.

       
We looked over the outside of the vehicle and under the hood (learned the word ‘engine’) then opened the doors.  We noticed a lot of lights on the police cars.
                    
        
Then we climbed inside and saw their computer and radio and imagined what it would be like to drive it.  We also sat in the back, which was a bit squished, and wondered who sits there and looks through the glass to the officers in the front.


          
               Then today a tow truck came to the school.
             
    This is a family run company with husband and wife as drivers. 
              They came to share their vehicle and job with us.
 
It was raining pretty hard so not many children came outside.  That is until
        they peeked out the window and saw my car being winched up.
  
The children were offered the chance to use the levers to lift my car up and down. 
Hmmm, a question for the children will be "how can we add levers to our fruit box tow truck?"
           
The driver showed us the hook that they would use to turn a car over if it
        had flipped.  We saw the winch working at the other end.

     But oh, oh, I locked my keys in the car!  How do they open the door?
  
It took him about a minute to open the door using special tools.  We got to
           play with the blow up tool (sorry I didn’t get the proper name).
                         
We noticed these small wheels in the back of the truck.  What are they for?

                          
Within minutes Damien had them off and under my car ready to lift it totally off the ground.  They are used if a vehicle has all wheel transmission or if the back wheels are damaged and can’t turn.
                  
           It was an awesome way to learn more about emergency vehicles. 
I love our community that when asked they will share their time and jobs with
                                              us.