Ever Want To Be a Fireman?

On Friday I did something a little selfish. I took a half day to spend with Isabelle and her classmates. It's not something I have done much of in the past but given the amount of travel I have had in the last few months I felt like I owed her that. I had an opportunity to drive some of the students to the E. North Street Fire Station of the Wade Hampton Fire Department for a tour and a visit.

Well I can say that it certainly was a great time. We were welcomed in and shown the whole station from the kitchen to the ladder truck. The guys there were great with the kids and genuinely enjoyed talking about what they do and fire safety. Isabelle later said her favorite part was seeing where they all sleep and eat. She said one fireman's bed was pretty messy and that she told him that he would have to make it up before he could sleep in it! If only she listened to her own advice.

Here are some pictures.

The tour always includes a fireman getting all geared up. It serves a couple of purposes. First of all some of us are curious about how they do it and all the gear they wear. Secondly, and most importantly for the students, it shows then what the firemen will look and sound like when they are in the house looking for people. It can get pretty scary for a little one who sees a fireman dressed up like a space alien that sounds like Darth Vader coming at them through the smoke on their hands and knees! But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Of course the first thing they wanted to do was show us how their dispatch works. We were just sitting down when a real alarm went off. Just like that the men who were calmly talking to us were gone, both the ladder truck and the engine and everything. We all watched the trucks leave and the fire marshal stayed behind to explain to the students what was going on. Luckily it was just a minor event that was dealt with by another fire station and they were right back in five minutes to park the trucks in the garage. The tour went off without a hitch after that.

The firemen were very impressed with how much the students had retained about fire safety from their classes earlier in the week: stop drop and roll, call 911, leaving a burning house, escape plans, and all that stuff. In the end we all learned a thing or two. One I didn't know is that if you are stuck on the second floor without a way out you should hang a sheet or something out of your window. Firemen will always look for this type of signal when they first arrive at the scene. Of course they always check the entire house during a fire but making yourself visible is always a good idea.

Another thing that surprised me is their role in protecting property and cleaning up afterwards. They explained to us how their first role is obviously protecting life and limb, getting people out of a burning house, everyone knows that. Here the second crew at a fire will often go into a burning structure to retrieve and protect valuables and personal, irreplaceable property when possible. They will push furniture together and take down paintings then cover everything up with tarps and blankets. They also stick around and help clean-up and protect other items from water damage when they can. As one fireman said to me: "We try to do what we would want other people to do for us." Pretty cool, I thought.

I also got to check out the equipment and ask questions of some of the firemen. I got a little lecture on setting up a truck to a hydrant, on some of the municipal politics between departments, and had a good look at the sharp looking Michelin tires on all the trucks. They were all made in the USA in the very plant I had come from that morning in Spartanburg.

Here is Isabelle's CP class (1st grade) and the GS class (K-5) with a few of the brave men from the Wade Hampton Fire Department. Thanks again for the tour!