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. 🙂