Field Trip: Hollywood Fire Station

Are you looking for a fun, new experience for your kids to beat the winter blahs? I suggest the fire station! We have a good friend who attends my in-laws church and happily showed us around the busiest station in Hollywood, FL. Mark truly loves his job and he was such a great guide!

This station has an engine, a bucket truck, and an EMS truck as well as two back-up EMS trucks which are mostly used for events like football games. Mark currently works on the EMS truck.

Mark took time to show the girls what was in every compartment of the engine, explain all about the different hoses, show which tools were most important to the fire fighters, and answered all of our questions. The girls asked a lot about the different knobs and buttons they saw on the truck. We also found out that the most common calls the EMS truck gets are, "I'm not feeling well," from the elderly.

The girls even got to try holding some of the equipment and were surprised just how heavy it was!

My husband also tried out some of the equipment. He commented how heavy it must be to carry just the air tank for a long time, let alone adding on everything else. The girls enjoyed watching Daddy get fitted for a tank!

One of Mark's fireman friends, Emmanuel, put on all his gear and showed everything to the girls. He was so nice and Rose was fascinated, but Grace and Beth were a little intimidated. It was great for them to see and Mark made sure to tell them that if they were ever in a fire and saw someone dressed like this coming toward them not to run away because they were the good guys there to help them. I had never thought about it, but for a kid in trouble who is already scared, this would be pretty intimidating.

(Daddy got in this picture because of the nervous girls!)

Beth helped close one of the compartments on the truck. She was overwhelmed and didn't ask as many questions as Rose, but she had a great time and enjoyed herself the whole time. 

We also saw where the rescue workers hang out and eat while not on a call...

where they do their laundry...

where they find their calls...

and where they hang their equipment!

This was not only an informative and very interesting field trip for the girls, it also helped them see rescue workers as real people and I hope would help them from being scared if they were ever in need of them. Everyone at the fire station took time to come over and meet us and say hello to my girls. I love that we were able to be shown around by a friend. It made everything more personal and memorable for all of us. 

Here's a great big, "Thank You!" to Mark and all of the other rescue workers at Station 5 of the Hollywood Fire and Rescue Department!