Fire Station Field Trip

We went to the fire station (Reno Station, on Mae Anne) to take a tour with Reno Moms Like Me. We ended up being 15 minutes late because I was having way too much fun laminating with my new laminator preparing items for school the following day. The fire engine had apparently left the station to answer a call about a fire, so the tour was cut short. A firefighter trainer gave us the kid goody bags, showed us around the garage, showed us a little bit about the outside of the fire truck and fire boats.


Afterwards, I asked if we could see the kitchen so we could see if it was just like the books that we had read about fire stations. Then I just chatted with the firefighter while the girls played on the square floor and kept getting up onto chairs then back down. We ask if we could see the fire pole but that station doesn't have one anymore. I asked Chloe some questions to see if some of our learning about fire safety had sunk in:

Me: What do you do if there is a fire in the house?
Chloe:Get out of the house!
Me: Are you supposed to hide under your bed?
Chloe: NO
Me: Are you supposed to hide in your closet?
Chloe: NO
Me: If you see a fire fighter in our house, are you supposed to go with them?
Chloe: YES

Then the rest of the fire fighters came back and Tao e poo (spelled phonetically) gave us our own personalized tour. He was so friendly, nice and great with the girls. He told us the difference between the fire truck and fire engine. The fire engine has a more specialized water system that an engineer who is really good at math can operate. The fire truck has a ladder so that they can climb onto roofs to put holes in so that the smoke and fire have somewhere to go. I always thought the terms were interchangeable. Unfortunately with budget cuts in Washoe County and in the city of Reno, they are not actively using the fire truck. To use it, they have to call someone in from another station.

The fire engine has 4 people to operate it: the Captain, the driver/water engineer, 2 fire fighters. We also learned that fire trucks & engines are designed with the right handed in mind. Left handers are still able to be fire fighters, they just have to get creative with their hoses and other equipment.

They were able to sit in the drivers seat and "drive" two times each. They had a blast! They wanted to touch the buttons but I told them no because they were exactly the way that the driver needed them and we didn't want to cause them to waste time fixing them because they have to get to the fire SUPER FAST!



They even were able to sit in the Captain's chair and put on his helmet (with some help because it was HEAVY!!)