Kids fight flames at Fire Prevention Open House
Amairis Ingles, 5, looked right at home in the front seat of a fire truck. Photos by: Gillian English
Emergency Services personnel parade down Main Street. 
Nicholas Mullins sprays the fire hose while his brother, Timothy, waits his turn. 
Firefighter Hunter LaRochelle waves out the window of a fire truck. 
Timothy Mullins takes a turn with the hose.
John Walcek, Wareham’s former police chief and a current volunteer firefighter, flashes a thumbs up. 
Kristian Ostapchuk practiced using a fire extinguisher. 
Kids peek out from the passenger seat of fire trucks on the parade route.
Huxley Berriault poses with mom Stephanie Berriault, and firefighter Savannah Kelley.
Amairis Ingles, 5, looked right at home in the front seat of a fire truck. Photos by: Gillian English
Emergency Services personnel parade down Main Street.
Nicholas Mullins sprays the fire hose while his brother, Timothy, waits his turn.
Firefighter Hunter LaRochelle waves out the window of a fire truck.
Timothy Mullins takes a turn with the hose.
John Walcek, Wareham’s former police chief and a current volunteer firefighter, flashes a thumbs up.
Kristian Ostapchuk practiced using a fire extinguisher.
Kids peek out from the passenger seat of fire trucks on the parade route.
Huxley Berriault poses with mom Stephanie Berriault, and firefighter Savannah Kelley.
Shouts, cheers and sirens could be heard from Wareham’s Main Street as fire trucks paraded through town on the morning of Sunday, Oct. 16.
Families waved the trucks into the fire station as firefighters got out and quickly got to work setting up fire safety activities for kids as part of the The Fire Prevention Open House.
Captain Chris Smith was the lead organizer for the event, which they put on as part of Fire Prevention Week every year in October.
“It’s a way for us to show the importance of fire prevention and fire safety,” he explained. “It also shows the community what we do, and it's a good way for us to interact with them.”
Smith said that the day is generally designed for kids, with a lot of the activities geared toward getting them to learn fire safety at an early age.
As part of the day’s festivities, kids got to sit in fire trucks, use the fire hose to “put out” a cardboard cut-out of a fire, and use a fire extinguisher to put out a real fire, which was on a small grate controlled by firefighters.
“I got it all! I sprayed the whole fire out,” cheered Timothy Mullins, while using the fire hose with his brother, Nicholas.
All the employees that were there that day were working on a volunteer basis, Smith said, choosing to spend their Sunday giving back to the community.
John Walcek, former Wareham police chief and volunteer firefighter, said that there were about 50 volunteers present to help out.
Meanwhile, Amairis Ingles, 5, was a natural behind the wheel of the fire truck, and pressed every button on the dashboard. But when asked her favorite part of the day, she said she couldn’t decide. “All of it is cool,” she said.
Walcek said that the day is really important to the community.
“It brings people together and teaches about fire safety,” he explained.
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