Bill Belian/ Contributing Photographer Firefighters dismantle a vehicle on Oct. 14 at the Ranger Volunteer Fire Department’s Fire Prevention & Open House event. The demonstration showed the public the department’s different lifesaving techniques while allowing the firefighters to hone their skills.
Ranger – Oven fires, fire trucks and smoke detectors were all part of the annual Ranger Volunteer Fire Department’s annual Fire Prevention & Open House event on Oct. 14.
The focus of the event was fire prevention, and this year’s main focus was on kitchen fires. The determining factor in each year’s fire prevention subject is based on the frequency of different types of fire calls the department receives.
Demonstrations on how to prevent and extinguish oven fires were both entertaining and informative, and an actual oven fire drew a crowd. There were different household products on display that can assist in helping to extinguish a stove fire, such as baking soda and corn starch.
The event offered a host of other activities, such as a vehicle extrication demonstration, bounce house for children, dunk tank as well as the popular kid’s Fire Safety House, which teaches children what to do if they’re inside a house that’s on fire.
Rides up in the bucket of a ladder truck for a bird’s-eye view of the grounds was offered by the Peachtree Volunteer Fire Department, which was on site along with other departments.
Lt. Christina Shafer with the Peachtree department was taking folks up in the air on Tower 15. When asked if she was afraid of heights, she laughed and said, “Not anymore. Six months ago you wouldn’t have gotten me up here, but I got it out of my head and learned to trust our equipment.”
Other activities included landing a medical transport flight helicopter, a blood mobile on site accepting donations of blood and free lunch, with hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, soda and water. Other departments and agencies were also at the family fun event, along with “Sparky” the fire dog.
Jonathan Brege is a firefighter and technical rescuer with Ranger. He said of Fire Chief MikeTaylor, “He’s really brought the department up to standards. He’s also very proactive in the community and is making things better for the department as a whole. This is just a great show of public safety for the community.”
There was also a 50/50 raffle with Belinda Wave winning half of the pot and the other half going to The Scuba Gym in Murphy, which helps folks with special needs and other disabilities, under water.
Taylor was happy with the amount of people that stopped by for the event/.
“With everything else going on in town, we had a great turnout,” he said. Under sunny skies, people were enjoying the annual event, kids were laughing and running around and everyone seemed to be happy to be out and about.