As part of the local fire brigade, Kay helped host the local open house for the fire station awhile back. It was a great event for families with kids to come explore the station and also useful for adults to see some of the fire demonstrations they put on.
I’m not sure if I’ve explained, but there are only professional firefighters in Zürich and Winterthur and the other fire brigades in the surrounding towns are made up of volunteers. People join and are trained to be a part-time firefighter. They then have a pager and respond to any calls they get unless they are too far away or not able to make it for some reason. The volunteer system works surprisingly well in Switzerland and with every page, you always get enough people to fill up the truck and head out to a call.
At the station below, they demonstrated an oil fire and what happens when you try to put it out with water. Now, I always had been told that water and oil are very, very bad for fires, but I didn’t know HOW bad. They poured a small glass of water into the pan and the entire shed burst out with a balloon of exploding flames!
It was too quick to photograph, but just imagining if this kind of explosion happened in a house was horrifying. All that flame would wrap through your kitchen and living room and set everything on fire. It was scary to see how quickly the fire really ignites and expands!
The station then showed approximations of how long it takes the firefighters to respond and put the fire out. They come quickly, but it does take time and much of your house could be burned down by then. Even Kay who wakes up to calls at 2am and rushes out still takes around 4 minutes to get to the station and then more to suit up and get on the truck to get dispatched.
After the first demonstration, Kay showed his father and me around the station and the different things on the trucks. His father found it really interesting because he used to be in the voluntary fire brigade as well.
Below is Kay showing is Dad the jaws of life that they use to help with accidents on the highway.
For the second demonstration below, they showed what happens to all those who decide to light the traditional Swiss Christmas tree with candles one more time when it is too dry. The firefighters always get some calls about this each year, so again it was important for them to show people the dangers involved with this seemingly harmless idea.
The guy who was under the umbrella said later on that it actually got really hot really fast. He didn’t even have time to take his hat off before he stuffed his fire helmet on top. The umbrella melted in seconds and everything was up in hot, hot flames!
The wood here also makes a really dark smoke because it hasn’t dried out enough to be burned. Probably that and things in the sofa burning that should not… but just imagine that dark smoke in your home again. You wouldn’t be able to breathe at all!
The firefighters demonstrated a rescue and how it’s hard to know where to even put out the flames with so much smoke. They do have some thermal heat detectors, which seem pretty nifty to catch the hidden things still burning.
All in all, it was a very informational day and fun to see where Kay is spending his time volunteering. 🙂
Only at the very end of the show did everyone around us stand up, and then we could stand without having the guards tell us to sit down or the people behind us try to murder us. But man, between that and the fumes of cigarette smoke wafting up from the rows below us for the entire concert, I don’t think I ever want to see another concert in Letzigrund ever again. It’s pretty horrible for non-smokers.
My partner had the dog most of the way up and the dog was really pulling her. My friend could barely control the dog even walking. It was a bit funny seeing the dog surge forward.
We switched shortly before our summit and the dogs really do help alleviate the energy required for uphill climbs! But on the reverse… it can be quite disastrous going downhill if you are not in control of your dog!
I have an OK time leading dogs and I seemed to be better about holding our dog back than my partner. Maybe part of it helped that I was speaking to my dog in Swiss-German, unlike most of the English colleagues around me. It was hilarious to hear them try and say “Stop, slow, slower!!” to the dogs with no reaction.
She might be peeing during our break, but she was still cute. 🙂
I really had to be careful on the way down to take slow and steady steps and make sure that when she would pull ahead, she would not set me off balance, toppling me over.
Overall, the walk was much more enjoyable with the dogs. They helped pull you up, down and forward on the long stretches. You could really feel the difference in energy exhausted on the flat stretches.
The weather was not the greatest, but it didn’t rain or snow, and at the end of the day we saw a bit of blue sky and some mountains in the distance. All in all, not a bad day!
We ended the evening back at the lodge with a fondue dinner. I had risotto and lamb to keep gluten free and we all enjoyed a well-deserved glass of wine!
