Firefighter Ice Cream Social

Today, one of the fire stations in Centerville had an ice cream social (code for fund-raiser). They had burgers, chicken, hot-dogs, and (of course) ice cream. They also had all kinds of cool fire trucks and demonstrations. The weather was perfect, so we hopped in the car and headed down south (about 3 miles from our house, so it's not like we had far to go...) All the fire trucks were out of the station house and lining the streets. Bode was in hog-heaven--he kept pointing and saying, "Firetruck!" Here's a shot of Bode and Mommy sitting on the front of one of the big ladder trucks.

Some of the trucks' doors were open, so we climbed in and checked things out.

The first demonstration was a vehicle extraction. This simulated a person being trapped in a car. The jaws of life were used to cut off the doors and entire roof of a car. Here's a shot of Mommy and Bode watching the crew work their magic.

This is a shot of the car after the roof had been removed. It's amazing how quickly a car can be dismantled.

After watching a car get demolished, we headed over to the fire hose. The little kids were able to hold a hose and shoot water at a simulated fire, which was a large piece of plywood painted to look like a house with painted flames shooting up in the windows. Bode saw the hose and started to take off his shirt. He must have thought it was time for water play. We convinced him to stay dressed, and he proceeded to work the hose. Obviously the water pressure was dialed back...

The highlight had to have been the arrival of the Rescue Flight helicopter. It flew in and landed, which was very cool. It drew a large crowd and we were fortunate to be in the first wave of people to go see it.

Here's Bode in front of the bird.

Finally, here's Bode in the pilot's seat. He was the second kid to get his picture in the cockpit. Just as he was getting out, one of the rescue workers asked that no kids get into the vehicle--the door was open just for kids to see inside. Therefore, we were fortunate to get this picture.

A large sound system was booming some tunes. As always, Bode was attracted to the music and proceeded to put on his own demonstration. The little fellow has some (white boy) moves.

The demonstration which I most anticipated was the car fire. It was a bit of a let down. I got real excited when I saw the firefighters getting all geared up.

I was expecting the car to actually be lit on fire (per the title of the demonstration). Sadly, it was a simulated fire, so basically all the demo involved was firefighters in their hot suits shooting water onto a car. I could've done that in my driveway :-)

We spent a couple hours in Centerville and had a nice time. Here's Bode and Mommy leaving. "Bye bye, firetruck!"

Bode wanted to skip his nap when we got home, but it didn't take much work to convince him he should take one. Ashley and I are cleaning up the house (well, she is...I'm writing this). Pleasant week to all.