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| Lydia wouldn't leave her new friend... |
Our kiddos attend school Monday, Wednesday, Friday and then we homeschool on Tuesday and Thursdays. The whole school does this....
So--seeing as we had the day off yesterday for President's Day--we decided to finish Tuesday's work on Monday so we could take a firestation field trip today!!!
My friend Becky set it all up (thanks Becks) and this morning we set off for one of the busiest firestations in all of Portland....Station #13 where our friend Fireman Scott is a firefighter.
On the way there, I listened to a car load of eight-year-olds read each other "Would You Rather Questions" (which--by the way--is a great book for car rides and interesting discussions). I did have to curtail the edible questions though when 2 out of the 4 mentioned feeling a little queasy and I'm still not sure if I'd rather eat "10 live caterpillars or 4 dead tarantulas". It's also up in the air as far as either being "able to talk with animals or understand all languages."
We made it to the firestation and I was quickly reminded of how much I enjoy these trips and how thankful I am for firefighters.
A few interesting facts about firefighters and fighting fires:
~The first known U.S. Fire Department was established in 1648.
~In 1736, Benjamin Franklin organized the first group of volunteer firefighters.
~Fire alarms started with the invention of the telegraph.
~ In the U.S. about 70% of all emergency medical calls are handled by firefighters.
~Temperatures within a burning building may exceed 1500 degrees F.
~Some severe forest fires have required more than 10,000 firefighters to work together at the same time.
~Fire engines can carry around 500 gallons of water.
~Typical fire engines can pump 1500 gallons per minute.
~Large fire engines carry up to 1000 feet of hose.
~There are between 2 and 3 million fires in the U.S. each year.
~Not all fire engines are red and not all fire stations have a Dalmatian (though I wish they did).
~Smokey the Bear was named after an actual bear cub that was rescued in a 1950 forest fire.
Most importantly...as we interacted with all the wonderful firefighters at Station #13...It was just a good reminder that they are real people, with real families who head out at the sound of a VERY loud alarm to protect other real people, with real families in our city.
It made me very thankful!
Some fun photos from the visit:
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| Seeing where they "have to do their own laundry!!!" |
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| Checking Colson's vitals... |
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| Learning about the fire engines |
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| They liked the "Darth Vader" mask demonstration |
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| Promising not to play with fire....and to clean up their rooms |
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| We thought for sure she'd be nervous....but Lydi really liked the "my-mer-man" |
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| With much thanks to the firefighters at Station #13 |
