Coordinating a firehouse visit in Berkeley was top on my list after I did a fire safety lesson with my 4 year old. It was much easier than I expected.
Make the appointment.
I called the Berkeley Fire Department to ask if they did tours and they did! They asked me to present what day I would like to visit and how many children I would be bringing. I decided to use this opportunity to invite friends and my daughter’s preschool class as well.
I replied back with the number in our group and the ages of the children which were roughly 3-5. They send the information to the fire department and either approve or deny your request and ours was approved! Had they not approved, we would have simply requested a different date. We scheduled the firehouse meeting for 1pm in the middle of the week.
Enjoy your visit.
The firefighters were great with the kids and the biggest lessons they wanted the kids to learn was to not be afraid if you see firefighters, that they are there only to help. To demonstrate this, they talked and joked with the kids in their regular wear, then suited up in their heavy fire gear and put their masks on to show that they were the same non-scary people they were before and that is how they have to dress when they are helping people when there is a fire. Then, they opened up the fire engine and let the kids crawl on up and check it out. The kids were amazed and had a great time. I think some of the parents were a bit in awe as well!
To read the rest of our firehouse adventure at the Berkeley Fire Station #2, click on the highlighted link that will take you to my blog, thisfineday.
[All photos by Rebecca Matthews]
1 thought on “How to visit a Berkeley fire station with your child”
Pingback: Summer Brainstorm: 25 things to do with a kid that cost less than $5