FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This past Saturday our local fire department had an open house. It has been a long time since I have attended one of these so i was excited to see if it was as exciting for me as an adult as it was when i was a kid. AND IT WAS!!! Because now not only did i get to participate but I also got to watch my sons face light up as he played and learned hands on.

There were alot of activities for children and a large selection of fire trucks to climb on and learn about. As well as a few extreamly AWESOME demonstrations.

This particular fire engine belongs to the DFW Airport fire department. It is much bigger than a typical city fire truck as you can tell by my son standing by the wheel its huuuuuge. Romeo liked it not only because it was the biggest but because it was yellow and had a super cool robot that the bomb squad uses (i neglected to take a picture of the robot sorry) and he enjoyed inspecting that.

With my dad being a fire fighter all my life i have put bunker gear on a bunch of times but this time it was romeos turn. He didnt really like the jacket because it was heavy and it was hot out that day. But he did look super cute. '

For adults they were having races. Basically what you do is start out with none of the gear on, someone calls go and you get the bunker gear on and run as fast as you can down and around some cones and the first one back wins. It was really funny because people were falling and getting tangled in the suspenders.

For younger kids they had a few fire extingushers rigged to spray water. At one station you could aim for a bucket and fill it up with water. But at the other station you could use the water rigged extingusher to actually put out a fire! This was one of my husband and sons favorite things about the day. Here is a photo of Romeo and my Dad putting out the fire.

One of the most exciting things for me was getting to learn about the jaws of life up close and personal along with a few other tools used in car accidents to get people out of danger.

It was really neat to watch these guys cut up this car with litte effort. Technology rocks!

The last demonstration we saw was an example of a roof rescue. This was so cool!! We got to see them repel from the ladder truck an actually show us what they would do in an emergency like this. They were able to manuver a gerny and themselves with ease. Im telling you if i ever need to be rescued i would want my life in the hands of these guys.

I am really greatful to the city for holding this open house. Its good for people to see what they really do. Most of the time these are the guys that are forgoten. They work holidays on thier birthdays thier kids birthdays and often miss big family events to put thier lives on the line for us. These men are REAL HEROS and deserve way more credit than they get.