A couple of weeks ago Nathan had a day off school for a curriculum day and I took the kids to the Eastern Hill Fire Station. Every week on Friday at 10:30 am they have a display for kids, and it was a fabulous hour…highly recommended for anyone in Melbourne with small kids.
At the fire station the kids were given plastic firemen hats and we sat down on the ground to wait. The first thing the firemen did was put out two fires. On one they used a fire extinguisher and the other was put out with a fire blanket. They talked about house fires and what to do if you were in one. They got some kids up to practice ‘crawl down low and go go go’ and Nathan was a willing participant. Next they talked about if your clothes were on fire what to do. Another little saying was demonstrated and some other kids went up to practice ‘Stop Drop Cover Roll’. Toby wasn’t interested in volunteering.
Next they talked about the clothes that they wore, both the ones they wore around the station and those they wore to emergencies. We were told that once the bell in the station rang they had 90 seconds to get into their gear and to the truck. Then a few little volunteers got to race a fireman getting dressed. They beat the fireman who had a lot of interference while getting into his gear.
A heavy rescue truck from the Carlton fire station then arrived with lights and sirens going. The firemen in that truck got out the jaws of life (called spreaders and cutters) and opened and then cut off a car door that was ‘stuck’. After that truck left another fire truck arrived to put out a ‘fire’ and rescue someone from the top of a two-storey house. This job required a ladder to be taken out of the truck and put up against the house while other firemen got the hose and directed water onto the fire in a well-rehearsed and smooth operation.
When all the displays were over the kids got to turn on a fire hose and sit in the fire engine. Nathan and Toby had a fantastic time, and I got some reminders of things we needed to remember to talk to the kids about.
My little firemen
Fire engine just arrived to an emergency
Jaws of life opened and then cut off a car door
The only working firemans’s pole in Victoria
