Our Visit to FDNY Fire Zone to Learn Firefighting

By 5/25/2014 01:17:00 PM

One very early morning the fire alarm in our building went off. Loudly. Very loudly. The next few minutes was filled with a flurry of getting dressed, grabbing ID's, heading downstairs and out the building. 

Thankfully there was no fire and everyone soon returned home, while they worked on turning off the very loud fire alarm system.

Visiting FDNY Fire Zone


Note: FDNY Fire Zone did not invite me to visit or asked me to write about my visit, I did so on my own and wanted to share. The giveaway prize is being provided by Silver Dolphin Books and made for a great tie in. No other compensation was received. Any personal views expressed are always 100% my own.

After settling back into our apartment, I unclung my son from my hip and reassured him there was no fire and we were going to be OK. It took a few minutes but he started to calm down. 

But I could still see the worry in his eye and he spent the next few moments asking me about the firefighters and if they'll put out the fire.

Well yes of course....

But I could tell my words weren't enough. So I started thinking how can I assure him that the firefighters would have come and put out the fire. Eventually I came up with the idea to visit FDNY Fire Zone!

Visiting FDNY Fire Zone

The FDNY Fire Zone has lots of information about fire fighting but also a "Simulated Fire scene" activity where you can act out an escape plan. I thought this would be a great activity to empower my son (and myself) if we needed to deal with a real fire.

Sadly on the day we visited the firefighters were needed somewhere else, so we didn't get a chance to do the Simulated Fire scene. But it's good to know that learning tool is there!

We spent the rest of our visit to the FDNY Fire Zone, getting dressed like a firefighter,

Visiting FDNY Fire Zone

exploring the fire truck where we made made "pretend" rescues

Visiting FDNY Fire Zone

getting our own fire truck from the gift shop

Visiting FDNY Fire Zone

and learning about the different fire equipment used to save lives. There's so much! I was amazed and touched at the same time. There's ALOT that goes into firefighting.

We enjoyed out trip to the FDNY Fire Zone and are just SO grateful for the men and women in the fire department that work to keep us safe. I hope that all of them enjoyed May 4th, 2014 which was International Firefighters' Day -- celebrating the dedication, heroism and importance of firefighters from all over the world.

The Fire Zone is New York City's state-of-the-art fire-safety learning center. General admission to the FDNY Fire Zone is free. The fee for the Fire-Safety Presentation is $6.00 for adults and children; and $2.00 for seniors (60 and over).

To learn more, visit - www.fdnyfirezone.org

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54 comments

  1. i found this "Did you remember to close doors behind you after you’ve gone through? Open doors allow for free oxygen flow, which can help a fire to spread to other parts of your home. Closing doors behind you helps to contain any fire." most useful. The other thing I already knew about, I never actually thought about this and it was never taught to me.

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  2. One of the excellent tips was to practice your escape plan at night. That's when most fires occur, so it makes sense!

    Nancy
    allibrary (at) aol (dot) com

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  3. Visited and learned In a fire, the smoke will rise towards the ceiling, so crawling on your hands and knees will give you practice with staying down where it's easier to see and breathe.

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  4. always check doorknobs before opening a door!

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  5. make sure u have clear pathways!

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  6. What a neat experience for your son!! My husband was a firefighter when he was in the Airforce, so we saw lots of fire trucks & equipment, but you know what? It never gets old. They love visiting the fire station in our house just as much :)

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  7. I remember doing that with my son. It is wonderful just to see their faces, they love visiting the fire house and going in the truck.
    And your son is so cute!!
    Mitch

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  8. My son always points out "where the fire trucks live!" He would love to visit a firehouse!

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  9. I remember loving our visit to the firehouse when I was young! I thought it was so fun!

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  10. I think it is such a good idea to check the doorways to see if the door is hot. I would probably be so scared, I would forget.

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  11. This is an awesome field trip to take with kids to teach them about fire safety. Always having a plan is key

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  12. The checking doorways fire safety tip is important!

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  13. We need to go visit a Fire Department. And, figure out the alarms better. My kids have slept through our smoke detector (we accidentally set it off with a fire in the fire place).

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  14. That is a very cool trip. Our little local fire department is nothing compared to the ones in the big cities. I don't even know if they offer any sort of tours for kids. I do know that for Career Day at school, one of the firetrucks was out in the parking lot and the kids got to go see it, go inside, blow the horn and everything. My little guy loved it!

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  15. having clear pathways is a great tip, this is so very important!

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  16. My kids love to visit the fire department. And I find that it kind of reassures them

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  17. This sounds like a great experience and nice giveaway.

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  18. What a cool trip to the fire department! Great giveaway to accompany your visit too.

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  19. In Canada so I can't enter but it's a great giveaway! My boys are obsessed with fire trucks and firefighters!

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  20. I love the idea of practicing your escape plan! We haven't talked about this enough with our almost 4 year old -- we need to have an idea of what we'd do in case of a fire.

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  21. I've heard all the tips before--I'm married to a fire captain! :)

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  22. What a cute trip! My son loves visiting out local firefighters too

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  23. What a cool experience. My dad and grandpa were firemen so we got to spend a lot of time in the fire house. It was a cool experience.

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  24. We have practiced the fire route in our house. I did not, however, think to tell the kids to get low and go. That's an excellent tip to have come across!

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  25. I really liked the tip to practice your escape at night...most people probably don't think to do that

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  26. My son would have been thrilled to be apart of such a nice experience. He wants to be a policeman, or firefighter when he gets older.

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  27. What a great experience. My kids would have loved being able to do something like this.

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  28. I learned that if your family sleeps with their doors closed, you may want to install hard-wired smoke alarms, which use the electricity in your home to operate. This can give everyone in your home an early warning, because hard-wired alarms can all be connected so that every alarms sounds when one goes off.

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  29. I learned that I need to make sure that our windows open easily!

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  30. I like the idea of practicing the crawl. You can't assume that the kids will know what to do in a fire.

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  31. I like the practice plan in the dark.

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  32. My favorite tip is Get Low and Go.

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  33. Your son looks like he's having amazing time with the fire department! How lucky you didn't really have a fire at home!

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  34. I thought it was a really good tip to practice your plan in the dark.

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  35. I learned it's good to practice your escape plan at night or in the dark!

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  36. My favorite tip is "get low and go." It's catchy.

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  37. Thanks for the reminder. Never leave a candle that is lit unattended. Patricia

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  38. I think practicing the plan in the dark is a great idea. If the house is very smokey, it would be like navigating through the dark anyhow.

    Nathansmommy619(At)aol(dot)com

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  39. Following you via google+ as Stacey Bic

    Nathansmommy619(At)aol(dot)com

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  40. I've been planning to take my daughter to FDNY fire zone for sometime now but something seems to always come up. However, this post is confirmation that I need to take her. Happy to hear that it was a false alarm and all is well.

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  41. Practice your plan in the dark is useful! I never would have thought of that!

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  42. I haven't thought about practicing during each season because there could be different obstacles. Great tip!

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  43. We need to practice our plan in the dark.

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  44. Practice getting out of your house in the dark.

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  45. clear pathways is a great one and may even get my boys to stop leaving toy cars all over the hallways!

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  46. Always check your smoke alarms. :)

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  47. Always check the doorknobs before opening a door.

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  48. clear pathways is something i find important

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  49. I found this helpful- Did you remember to close doors behind you after you’ve gone through? Open doors allow for free oxygen flow, which can help a fire to spread to other parts of your home. Closing doors behind you helps to contain any fire.

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  50. Feel the doorknobs to see if they are cool before opening the door.

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  51. Practice your plan in the dark.

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  52. practicing in the dark, i think that's important but never occurred to me. I have a suggestion as well, when kids sleep over at a different house, ask for them to receive instructions in case of emergency there as well. Being in a strange place makes it harder to be safe.

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  53. Plan you escape at night when you could be disoriented. a great tip

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