Threatening rain clouds didn't keep the crowd away from the 17^th Annual Fire Prevention Open House at the Wareham Fire Department.

“Today’s all about opening our doors to educate children and adults on fire safety,” said Wareham Fire Chief Robert McDuffy. “We take a serious topic, and make it fun.”

The event kicked off with a parade of fire trucks from Besse Park to the Wareham Fire Station on Main Street, where there was food, and fun activities aimed at teaching kids how to stay safe in the event of a fire. The themes of the event this year were “practice your escape plan” and “have two ways out.”

The event featured a smoke house, which is a tent the firefighters fill with smoke, and people must enter the tent and crawl through thick smoke to find the exit.

The Marion Fire Department lent their tower truck to Wareham for the day, for a high flying exhibition of firefighters repelling from the tower.

Members of the fire department visited local schools in anticipation of the event to let the students know the event was upcoming, and to educate them about how to react if they’re faced with a fire.

“Basically, we wanted to open our doors to the public so they can see what we do,” said Wareham Fire Department’s Code Enforcement Officer, Mike Dykas.

And many citizens accepted that invitation.

“The size of this crowd is a testament to how seriously this community takes fire safety,” McDuffy said.

McDuffy credited the Wareham Fire District Prudential Committee for helping to make the event possible.