Indianapolis International Airport’s Fire Department (AFD) recently took the Adventure Kids and their classmates on an unforgettable tour of Fire Station #1.
Read on to hear about our experience and how you might be able to visit as well.
Getting There
The fun begins in just getting to the station!
If you are lucky enough to be able to go on a field trip or group visit to an AFD station, you’ll be given directions for how to find the firehouse. Those directions include a little bit of winding around airport roads.
Aside from those who work at the airport, most people never see these areas. It was really cool to see the jets taking off and landing right above our heads.
Fire Station #1 sits right next to the taxi field, so we watched and heard planes coming and going during the whole experience.
Education
For the first portion of the trip, we all sat in a big conference room. The firemen showed a kid-friendly video about fire safety.
All of the kids were given hats and sticker badges to wear proudly throughout the day.
The firemen also spoke about fire safety and the importance of having an escape route, not playing with lighters or matches, and other fire safety information.
Tour
The Adventure Kids love fire trucks and firemen (they were both firemen for Halloween last year), and they have been to a few fire stations already. However, we had not visited a fire station quite like this one.
Compared to the other stations we’ve seen, this one is large with lots of big, specialized equipment. The firemen took us to all areas of the firehouse, including the kitchen, bedrooms, and family room.
It is always interesting to me to hear about how firefighters live and work together as their own family unit. We really enjoyed the tour.
Trucks and Equipment
This, of course, was the highlight of the tour. We were able to see and touch the equipment and specialized fire rescue trucks like the one that has a spear on the top to cut holes into airplanes that need water inside.
The firemen also gave us a demonstration of a truck spraying water and foam at the same time. That was a real showstopper!
One of the firefighters dressed in all of his gear, including the oxygen tank and mask, so the children could see what that looked like in-person. He also allowed them to feel the heft of their hats and coats. We were all surprised by the weight the firefighters carry just in those two items.
Prior to this demonstration, I hadn’t considered how scary this might look to an already scared child trapped in a fire. The firemen did a great job explaining to all of the kids that there’s just a friendly firefighter under all of that stuff and they shouldn’t be scared because that friendly person is there to help.
I thought this was the most important part of the trip, and I was glad the Adventure Kids paid attention to that part.
For the grand finale, the kids took turns spraying water on a real fire! The firemen were controlling the flame, of course, and turned it off once the kids hit the fire with the water.
Visit
The fire station schedules tours for school and church groups. If you’d like to schedule a visit for your group, just get them a call at 317-487-5089.
The firemen at this station were very welcoming and over-the-top nice to all of the kids. AFD, thank you for a fun and informative visit!
