Firestation Trip

The kids and I took a trip with Colin to Columbus yesterday to see their Fire Museum (click to link to their site). Colin had some work to do up there and I found this museum online after discovering COSI (the science museum we wanted to see) was closed on Tuesdays. I wasn't sure what to expect, especially for a 2-year-old attention span, but I was pleasantly surprised. The man who gave us a tour of all of the old fire engines (including a horse-drawn one) was so knowledgeable, and rightly so. He was a retired firefighter and his father and grandfather, and father-in-law were all firefighters in their day. He met his wife at the fire house, and his father met his wife at a fire house.Pretty amazing. My head was spinning after I left. He told so many interesting stories and knew all of the facts, past and present. Did you know that Columbus had the first EMT squad in the nation? The firefighters would call a doctor at OSU for help with injured people in a fire, and eventually that doctor said, "Hey, maybe I should just train some of these firefighters in basic first-aid and such so that I don't have to run out here all of the time." And, there you have it, the first EMT's. He also talked about how the horses were trained to line up at their stall doors in the early 1900's when the fire alarm sounded, saddles dropped onto their backs, and they were hood up to the fire trailer and ready to go. If a siren went off and the stall doors weren't opened, the horses would kick at the doors, anxious to leave. I saw the hoof marks on these old doors while I was there.

All of that was cool, but the real excitement was watching Jackson don his firefighter jacket and hat and climb up into the firetruck cab to man the controls, with his brother on the horn next to him. So cute. He could control all of the lights and sirens, and had buttons to hear calls go out on the CB's. He played on this firetruck for at least 30 minutes straight. We had the whole place to ourselves and he loved it.

Video upload isn't working on blogger at the moment, so check in later to see if I was successful attaching two videos as well.








































































Watch it, Liam!! (Jackson has the fire hose pointed right at his face.)