Bread and Other Provisions: Firestation 5

Off to visit another firestation today.

Station 5.

Apparently we are creating more competition. Again, we explained that we were visiting all the stations. These guys really want to be classified as the "coolest" station in Gwinnett County.

So they pulled out all the stops.

This is a thermal imaging camera for looking at fires behind walls, even searching for people if necessary. He let Lucas try it out. Very cool.

This firetruck is only 2 years old and costs $1.3 Million dollars. That's a serious piece of equipment. It is a ladder truck with a bucket and everything.

Lucas got to put on an air tank...and realized how heavy it really was.

This is the same ladder that station 3 showed us except here it is folded up...very convenient for tight spaces.

Here is a stretcher attached to the bucket of the truck so patients can be lifted/carried.

and then...out came the coolest remote control EVER! Yes, this remote is for the firetruck. And YES Lucas is operating it!!!

These water "cannons" -(that's what I call them) can be controlled by the RC. Lucas got to move the head of the hose around for a while with the remote.

and then up into the bucket of the ladder...

That would be Fireman Scottie.

You can never have enough emergency cones.

More RC "fun"...

We learned that they have huge fans they actually use for fire fighting. I didn't realize this but it makes sense. The fans are used in conjunction with hoses in order to control the direction of a fire. Of course too much fan would just "fan the flames", but there is a fine balance where they are very useful for battling the blaze.

Then more "coolness"... Lucas inside the truck and able to talk on the headset to Fireman Scottie.

Notice Scottie chatting on his own headset in the backround. I'm not sure who had more fun...

The coolness factor just kept increasing...Fireman Scottie and his buddy Josh got permission for Lucas to pull and turn dials and nobs on the big Firetruck to really pump water to a small hose that he could spray...so here he is with Josh...

and we have water....

time to spray the hose...

time to shut down the water...

and reel up the hose...

could the day get any cooler?...
oh yes.
When Josh said under his breath..."We're gonna set the record"...
They pulled out the BIG Ladder truck...
Let LUCAS sit in the passenger seat, with the headset on his head, pulling ropes and setting off sirens, horns, lights, and the whole works as Scottie drove him around the parking lot. No JOKE! I got to sit in the back seat for our little cruise adventure with another headset and the 3 of us communicated like "real" firemen. Lucas said "over and out" and Scottie responded back. I was cracking up in the backseat because I could see the joy in the boy and it just tickled me for him.