Families flocked to the open house at the Monroe Volunteer Fire Department’s Station No. 1 on Shelton Road Sunday, for an event that featured a touch-a-truck, fire safety tips and a live demonstration of a motor vehicle extrication.
Kristin and Sean Butler of Bridgeport were on their way to Jones Farm with their daughter Fay, 3, when they noticed the open house.
“We asked Fay, ‘do you want to see these trucks?’ and she said, ‘yeah,'” Sean said, then turning to his daughter, he said, “We’re going to get you a hat honey.”
The open house was held from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. and by 12:17 Monroe Deputy Chief Kevin Catalano said 150 people had already stopped by.
“They love the stuff, the helmets, the badges and the popcorn,” Catalano said of the children. “It’s a good time and hopefully it gets people thinking about fire prevention.”
All three of the town’s fire companies, Monroe, Stepney and Stevenson, participated in the event. Detective Nicole Buckley also attended the event to represent the Monroe Police Department.
Firefighters Ryan Anderson and Cody Pereira went up in the bucket of a ladder truck and tables were set up with fire safety information, cookies and other baked goods inside the bays of the firehouse.
Matt Gill, a firefighter and emergency medical technician, and Tyler Teixeira, a junior firefighter, showed off equipment at one table, including turnout gear, a helmet, radio, search light and Scott air pack, which has about a half hour’s worth of compressed air, according to Gill.
Kevin Giordano, a firefighter from Stevenson, said firefighters raffled off two rides to school aboard a fire truck and the Community Emergency Response Team raffled off tickets to a Sound Tigers game.
The highlight of the day was a live motor vehicle extrication demonstration on Fireman’s Field.
Firefighters used Dewalt Sawsalls, Hurst Jaws of Life and a small manual saw to break and remove the windshield of a Honda Accord and to remove the roof.
The crowd that gathered on the grass cheered firefighters for their rescue of the dummy trapped inside the car.
A photo gallery
Monroe FD Open House was a blast on Sunday. In addition to seeing the young ones and parents thoroughly enjoy themselves, I learned a lot about the equipment, how it is allocated for each specific scene that comes up, cost and longevity, etc..
Thank you to the Men and Women of our Volunteer Services
Sean O’Rourke