Firefighters Museum Tour

Today Alex's Wolf den met at the Toledo Firefighter's Museum.  We took a tour first, with a former firefighter showing us all of the old equipment that they used to use decades ago.  The oldest piece of equipment was a manual pumper wagon that was pulled by the firefighters to the fire, then one hose was snaked to the nearest pond, river, or swimming hole while the other hose was used to spray the fire under the force of a pump operated by 10 men on each side of the wagon pumping a huge lever back and forth.  They saw old firetrucks, protective gear, and call boxes.



Then we all went upstairs to Jed's Room.  Jed's room is a house fire simulator that they used to teach the kids to crawl low under the (fake) smoke, to call 911 and what to say to the operator, and even how to slide down a short pole at the "firehouse" as the firefighters came to the rescue.  All of the roles were played by the kids - Aaron volunteered to be the first "Jed" in the picture above.



Then they let anyone who wanted to try on the gear that the firefighters have to wear, including the pants and coat, the helmet, and an oxygen tank.  Alex thought it was very heavy.



This helped the Wolf scouts fulfill requirements for visiting a historic building (it was a former firehouse) and learning about fire safety.