Fire Prevention Week

Last November I joined the Castile Fire Department(CFD). It's kind of a family business: Dad is a first responder and was chief in the 70's, Mom is the Ladies Auxilliary, brother is the current fire chief/EMT-B, SIL is also an EMT-B. I completed my EMT-B course in May of this year. The firehall is only a block from my house so it's an easy jog over when the sirens wail us into service.

This week begins Fire Prevention Week, a national community service project to educate families on safe practices. This year CFD expanded their activities to try to involve more of the community. We demonstrated our new ice rescue equipment in a port-a-tank and used the same water for the kids to play with live hoses. There were two Jaws of Life demos on donated cars. Mercy Flight flew in for a tour of one of their birds and this also completed our landing zone training for the year. There was also a bounce house for the kids and a pig roast.


Just before the second Jaws demonstration the Rescue Captain offered to lend me his turnout gear so I could practice as well. It's unlikely that I would ever use the Jaws in a real accident as I would likely be needed in the ambulance but it was interesting to see what it is like as a fireman with all that heavy gear on, in addition to the heavy equipment. I always gave firemen kudos for the guts to run into burning buildings but now it's more important to thank a fireman for every job they do...I certainly can't handle it. Can you?

Don't forget to Fall Back AND change all smoke detector and CO2 monitor batteries on November 1st.