Six year-old Andrew Saez poses Saturday, July 11, with his fire dog Firefighter Red at Fire Station No. 2. Andrew, son of Samuel and Megan Saez, toured the fire station with his grandfather, Ray Shelton.
Andrew Saez dresses out in a helmet and bunker coat
Hannah Ray, 6, laughs with delight while holding a fire hose at Station No. 4 on APD-40. Assisting Hannah is Firefighter Eric Otis.
Logan Jenkins, 4, dons a firefighter helmet at Fire Station No. 2 on Paul Huff Parkway. In the background is Engineer Chris Bates. Logan is the son of Jason and Jennifer Jenkins. He toured the fire station with his mother and 18 month-old brother Parker.
Firefighter Luke Landers helps 4-year-old Logan Jenkins operate a fire extinguisher Saturday, July 11, at Fire Station No. 4 while his mother, Jennifer and younger Parker, 18 months, watch in the background.
The Cleveland Fire Department held its fourth annual open house Saturday to the delight of hundreds of children, their parents and the city’s firefighters. The annual open house is part of the department’s community outreach program.
At Station No. 5, Lt. David Allison demonstrated to youngsters and to a few parents about the dangers of smoke generated during a structure fire by using a mock house that is filled with mock smoke that smells like coconuts. Smoke inhalation is the leading cause of death in fires.
He explained that when the “smoke” enters upstairs bedroom of the mock house that they should get down on the floor below the smoke and crawl toward the door.
He told them to check the door for heat by using the back of their hands. If the door is cool, then it is safe to open and exit the house. Once they are safely outside, they meet with other family members at a designated spot.
“Do not go back into the house for any reason because that’s our job. We’re dressed for it,” Lt. Allison said.
At Station No. 2, Lt. Hank Bates, a 16-year veteran answered such questions as, “Do you have a dog?” “Where is the fire pole?” and “Why did the they invent the ladder truck?"
Lt. Bates patiently explained that the reason Dalmatians and fire poles are associated with fire houses is because firefighters rode in trucks, they used horses to pull fire wagons to the scenes of fires.
“Dalmatians are good at herding horses,” he said. “They slid down fire poles because the firefighters didn’t want to sleep with the horses, so they slept above the horses and to get downstairs real quick, they slid down a pole."
He said the only fire pole remaining in Cleveland is at Fire Station No. 1 and it is only for show.
Lt. Bates said the open house serves as an opportunity to show the public what its fire department does.
“We work for the City of Cleveland. We work for the residents so it’s good for us to let them come in let them see what we do and what they can expect on a day-to-day basis and the equipment we have,” he said.
Lt. Bates, who grew up in Memphis, doesn’t remember a time when he did not want to be a firefighter and sees himself in the young visitors.
“I was like these kids. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do and if you want something that bad, you work for it and you can make it happen,” he said. “I used to watch the trucks leave the station and I’d run after them down the road. I just watched them. I was fascinated with them and that’s all I ever wanted to do.”
After high school, Lt. Bates went to EMT and paramedic school and worked as a paramedic for a few years until "I finally got on with the City of Cleveland,” he said. The City of Cleveland is the only place he applied for “and I’ve been real happy.”