Fighting Fire

At the beginning of the school year, A2 and I used to take walks in the neighborhoods around A1's school after we dropped her off in the mornings. One morning as we were returning from our walk, we witnessed the greatest thing to happen in a 3-year-old's life - fire fighters to the rescue! We came on the scene just as two fire trucks and an ambulance were driving down the block to a house surrounded by smoke. One fire truck drove straight to the house while the other stopped a block away (and right in front of us at the time) and hooked up to the hydrant. Then that truck went zooming down the street toward the house, while the fire hose flew off the back of the truck in coils. The ambulance blocked traffic from entering the street and the medics and about ten fire fighters positioned themselves around the house to begin fighting the fire. It turned out that the owners of the house were smoking some meat (as in true BBQ smoking) in their backyard and didn't realize that so much smoke would build up around their house. It was actually a neighbor who called the fire department, and no real fire existed. A2 was a bit disappointed that he wouldn't be able to see anybody actually fight a fire, but then we wouldn't have been so close to all those fire fighters getting ready to fight a fire. I guess it was a good day for all involved.


This incident was the coolest thing that A2 had ever seen in his short life. Right then and there he decided that he wanted to be a fire fighter when he grows up. So on a recent trip back to Utah, we convinced Aunt Emily to show us around the fire station where she used to work as a fire fighter. The kids loved learning about the big trucks (look, they aren't even as tall as the tires!)...
...and all the equipment involved (like oxygen tanks)...
...and what a paramedic does and how they take care of the people involved with the fire.
Their favorite part was trying on some of Aunt Em's uniform. Thanks for showing us the ropes and for helping us understand more about fire fighting, Aunt Emily!