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By Laura Drinan
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Having settled into their new station last year, the Medfield Fire Department was excited to invite the community to join them on October 11 for an evening of entertainment and socializing, while learning about fire safety. Since last week was Fire Prevention Week, the local firefighters organized the evening to teach the community about the work they do to keep the town safe, and how to handle fire emergencies.
Fueled by excitement, pizza, and plastic firefighter helmets, kids climbed into fire trucks and took turns handling the hose as it shot water across the station’s driveway. In the station, kids saw the inside of an ambulance and looked at more fire engines.
Four of Medfield’s firefighters demonstrated an automobile extrication, where they used the Jaws of Life to take off the four doors and roof of a car.
Families excitedly watched the Medfield Fire Department demonstrate using the Jaws of Life.
“Fire Prevention Week is mostly for the kids,” said firefighter Scott Donahue. “We show them a lot about fire safety. So the smoke house right here,” continued Donahue, pointing at a trailer inside of the station, “it shows the kids if there was a real fire how to handle that, so to stay low and crawl around to get out.”
Rather than a haunted house, the Medfield Fire Department opted for the more appropriate smoke house – a trailer filled with fake smoke that teaches children hands-on how to navigate a house on fire. The trailer, borrowed from the Framingham Fire Department, showed children to feel the door with the back of their hand before trying to open a door and to stay low to the ground as they went through.
At the back of the station, families were invited to watch the automobile extrication, during which four firefighters worked to take off the doors and roof of a car to demonstrate how they used hydraulic rescue tools, otherwise known as the Jaws of Life, to rescue someone in a car accident. With the hydraulic tools, the firefighters showed how the Jaws of Life could cut through the frame of a car and made it look as simple as snapping a toothpick in half.
After the extrication, the children resumed playing on the trucks and exploring the station. “We’re just kids that have never grown up,” joked one of the firefighters.
“Our toys just got bigger, that’s all.”
Kids line up to get inside the Fire Prevention trailer, which taught them some important tips about navigating a house on fire.
