FD Open House

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Yesterday Ethan, Meg and I went to the base fire department's annual open house. It was really a lot of fun. The event was a collaboration between our FD, and two Japanese stations from Fussa and Tokyo.

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Tokyo FD's mascot, Kyuta-Kun. On his chest is the Japanese emergency number: 119

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There was gobs of free food, door prizes and free stuff like coloring books and magnets. They had lots of different trucks open that the kids were able to climb all over. Ethan was in absolute heaven and in complete awe of every firefighter, he'd go up to every one he saw and ask "Are you a real firefighter?" He actually says "firefighter" not "fireman".

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They also had lots of really interesting displays, like what happens when you throw water on a grease fire...very scarey stuff. And they were giving rides in the bucket of one of the ladder trucks. That sucker went really high, nearly 40 feet in the air! We all took a ride, both kids loved it.

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Looking down from half-way up on the ladder bucket. That's Ethan standing with one of the techs that works with Otis.

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There was a moon bounce and the "smoke house", which teaches kids how to escape from a building filled with smoke, Megan went through about 10 times, until she reeked of smoke and her eyes were all red and watery. The Fussa FD brought their earthquake simulator, it was really neat.

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Meg in the earthquake simulator

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There was also a competition between the U.S. and Japanese firefighters. They competed in several different timed events, like a bucket brigade and carrying a victim on a stretcher through an obstacle course, below is a race to see which team could get their full set of turnout gear on the fastest. The winning team got to take home the big trophy that gets passed around each year.
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Turnout gear contest

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