The Muscatine Fire Department will open its doors to the public this weekend.
The annual open house is from 12 – 3 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 8, at the fire station located at 312 East 5th Street.
“It’s an annual thing we’ve done since I’ve been here,” said Fire Department Captain Pat Gingerich. “I’ve been here 23 years and we’ve always done it.”
Gingerich hopes there is a good turnout for the open house.
Open house flyer
“Last year, we had a really good turnout,” he said. “We just hope to continue to put on a good show to make it worth coming back next year. Last year we had one of our best years so we want to keep repeating that.”
The open house is held on the first day of Fire Prevention Week.
“Usually we have interactive games for the kids,” Gingerich said. “Gear dress out where they can put gear on and an agility course.”
At the agility course, kids will be able to drag a hose, drag a fake dummy across the floor and hit a block with a hammer. All of the equipment the firefighters use will also be on display including the main line engine and the aerial ladder truck with all the compartments open.
“We have two demonstrations throughout the day,” Gingerich added. “One at one o’clock and then one at two o’clock.”
In the past, the demonstrations have included extricating someone from a vehicle. This year, the demonstrations will be on the hazards of turkey frying.
“This year’s theme is cooking safety,” Gingerich said. “That can be anything from your stovetop, to your oven, to your grill, to your fryers or even to cooking over an open flame on a bonfire so there’s safety tips for all.”
The fire department employs 44 firefighters who work for the department.
“We do what they call California Swing Shift,” Gingerich said.
They work one 24-hour shift one and one-off. Two more shifts follow like this, then the firefighters get four days off.
“We’re here a third of the time,” he said. “We live, eat, sleep, breathe here. It’s our home away from home for a third of our career.”
The first priority is going out on calls for service. The fire department not only responds to fires and ambulance calls but also responds to high-angle and low-angle rescues and hazardous materials. They also get called to the riverfront but are limited in what they can do there because they have a small boat. Muscatine County Rescue usually is the group in charge of that.
A lot of the firefighters are cross-trained as paramedics.
“Not everybody is a paramedic yet,” Gingerich said. “Our goal is to be a 100 percent paramedic but with the way things are today, getting people hired, our turnover rate – we have to stay on top of it so we have to hire people that are not paramedics. But what we do is bring them on and send them to paramedic school to be paramedics.”
The firefighters attend Scott Community College for paramedic school.
“We’ve had three classes go through,” Gingerich. “Three, maybe four so every year we try to send people off each shift to try to make sure every shift is equal as far as paramedics versus EMTs.”
