Sunday, January 23, 2011

Chief Valentine

Chief Valentine is my Uncle Scott and Person of the Week. He is Chief of the Little Rock Fire Department and Bomb Squad, a U.S. Marshall, and a wonderful uncle! I'm told he is also a pretty great husband and father too. :)

Hands down, the most eventful part of our Christmas vacation was our day with Uncle Scott at the Little Rock Fire Department. It was an awesome and unforgetable experience.

My Uncle Scott works mostly in Firehouse #1 also known as "The Big House", Little Rock's first and largest firehouse.

Below: Uncle Scott, me, and Sam

Here is the LRFD Bomb Squad truck, complete with all your bomb squad necessities such as bomb detecting robots, special uniforms which are sure to keep your body intact for your funeral (Uncle Scott's words, not mine), computers, detonators, and the list goes on.

Sam tried on the bomb suit, which weighs about 100 pounds once it's all said and done. He also got to drive the robot and detonate something. I'm not sure what it was but he was 100% safe with the experts on board, no worries.

I just wanted to put on the mask. It was VERY heavy and made me look like a monster.

Okay, so we're in the bomb squad truck and all of a sudden something starts beeping really loud. It sounded kind-of like Morse Code and somehow Uncle Scott understood it all and he said, "I gotta go." And he asked us if we want to go on a fire run! Ummm, YES! We hop into Engine 1 - the big ladder truck - and we were off!


I have no clue how they drive those big trucks, but Firefighter Lance did a perfect job!
And I was busy trying on fire fighter accessories in the back seat.



Mom and Sam joined in too. We all got to wear these headsets and talk to the fire fighters!

We basically went to the end of the city, but another Little Rock firehouse was first on the scene so we didn't see any fires. I think a smoke alarm went off but there wasn't a fire. So back to the station.

I forgot to mention, Uncle Scott doesn't ride in the fire trucks. He has his own vehicle especially for the Chief. It's obviously not as cool to ride in. :)

As soon as we returned to the fire station the beeps started again so we got to go on ANOTHER fire run! This time it was across from Park Plaza Mall. I was just dying to see someone I knew while we were driving, but no luck. It was still so much fun riding around and seeing the cars move out of the way for us!

Once we got back to the station, Sam and I climbed in the back of the ladder truck to take a picture. There is a driver in the front and back of this truck! That's a big truck.

Sam had been waiting all day to slide down the ladder, but the guys made him turn around his "Ohio State Buckeye" hat first. Haha.

We had such a great time at the Fire Station! Thank you so much Uncle Scott and the other LR fire fighters for such a fun and exciting day! Most importantly, thank you for being heroes and risking your lives for our safety every day.


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