The Wiscasset Fire Department’s Oct. 12 open house featured safety demonstrations and provided the public with a chance to personally inspect the collection of fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars parked outside Wiscasset’s Municipal Building for the occasion.
Damariscotta Fire Chief Neil Genthner Jr., led a fire safety lesson in a Surrey Fire Safety House, a trailer used for teaching kids proper methods for calling 9-1-1 in case of emergency and escaping a house fire.
As Genthner completed his lesson, simulated smoke filled the trailer, prompting the fire chief to show his audience how to call 9-1-1 and crawl through the smoke toward an exit. The latter was a particular favorite among the attendees at Oct. 12’s open house, with many going through the drill more than once.
After finishing a lesson with a particularly inquisitive and eager audience, Genthner was quick to praise the safety house.
“The kids really love it,” Genthner said.
Genthner also takes the safety house to local schools for safety demonstrations.
Alongside the safety house, Rick Tarr, a former Damariscotta EMT now working for Atlantic Partners EMS, showed off “The Seatbelt Convincer”. “The Seatbelt Convincer” uses a sling shot-like mechanism to simulate a car crash at five mph.
Tar put a kid-sized stuff dummy into a “car seat” and simulated a crash with and without a seatbelt.
Though “The Seatbelt Convincer” demonstrates only a low impact crash, Tar said that the fate of the crash dummy without a seatbelt leaves a lasting impression with kids.
“It really is a seeing is a believing kind of thing,” Tarr said.
Tar also let onlookers try out “The Seatbelt Convincer” with strapped in seatbelts.
Other popular events included free trips up to the top of a WFD aerial ladder, and a “jaws of life” exhibition simulating how firefighters rescue a victim trapped in a car.
The open house was well received, particularly by Dylan Plummer, 6, of Boothbay.
“I liked all it, “he said succinctly before excusing himself to climb to the top of the aerial ladder.