FIRE DEPARTMENT TOUR GETS GIRL SCOUTS FIRED UP

Inset photo, Ashley Miller thinks the fire helmet is too big for her.

Girl Scout Troop $209 in Jackson stands beside the 1,000-gallon pumper truck at the Fire Department. At right is troop leader Sandy Miller.

A ladder truck was one of several fire fighting vehicles the Girl Scouts were shown.

Two vans of Girl Scouts arrived at the Fire Department on Thursday for a tour.

Capt. Ken Koehler explains the controls of a high-pressure water cannon.

LaDonna Faire, left, and Ashley Miller watch a demonstration about smoke detectors.

A gaggle of Girl Scouts from Troop #209 in Jackson toured the Fire Department on Thursday and came away with some hot tips on fire safety.

They were also shown where firefighters bunk while on call, where they eat and relax, and what a fully-equipped firefighter looks like when he battles a blaze.

Firefighter Rob Francis told the Scouts there are two firefighters on duty 24 hours a day. When they complete a shift they take two days off then return for another 24-hour shift. There are also 15 volunteer firefighters who can be summoned in an emergency.

The Scouts were shown a conference room where that firefighters use for meetings and training.

"If we have a fire we can come back to this room and draw diagrams of the fire on a board and talk about the fire and how we can improve in areas," Francis said.

There is a city map in the room that lists all the streets and where the fire hydrants are. Hydrants are color coded; for instance, those circled in purple can deliver between 500 and 1,000 gallons of water per minute.

Francis told the Scouts three things are required to make a fire -- fuel, air and heat. By spraying water on a fire air and heat are removed and the fire is extinguished.

In the bunk room, Capt. Ken Koehler showed the Scouts small beds and closets used by firefighters on duty. When he asked if anyone knew how to get out of a burning building, one Scout replied: "You crawl."

"That's right," replied Koehler, who has been with the Fire Department almost 13 years. "And it gets dark in a fire because of the smoke. And a lot of times there's no lights because the electricity goes out."

Koehler flipped the light switch off as Francis crawled around the floor bumping into items while searching for the door. The Scouts were advised to do the same thing in the event they are caught in a burning building.

"When we go into a building to fight a fire we crawl and that's also how we search for someone in a house," Koehler said.

Across from the bunk room is a leisure room equipped with a kitchen. Firefighters cook their own meals or heat up food brought from home. "We can't just leave and go to McDonald's," said Koehler, preparing to demonstrate how a smoke alarm works.

The room has a large TV, tables and chairs. On the carpeted floor a Scout, pretending her clothes were on fire, rolled back and forth to show other Scouts how to put it out.

The Scouts were dwarfed by the large, shiny red fire trucks in the bay. Koehler explained how the controls work and talked about the trucks' fire fighting capabilities.

As the Scouts gathered outside the fire station, Francis drove a 1,000-gallon pumper out of the bay to demonstrate the flashing lights and piercing siren, as the Scouts jumped with enthusiasm.

Accompanying the Girl Scouts on their tour was Sandy Miller, troop leader, Mary Ann Jennings, assistant troop leader and volunteer Alice Quigley.