Please click on the following link to view a video on the Fire Station
The instructors at the Fire Station teach good and bad results of forest fire. They show the role of fire in nature and have the students look for signs of an old fire around the Expo site. The instructors show students some of the tools of a fire fighter. They demonstrate how fire is important to reseeding certain kinds of trees.
The instructors show the students some of the equipment the use for fighting fires. They show how they might use fuses to start a “back fire”. They show the pulaski and the emergency shelter.
The instructors teach the triangle of fire – fuel, heat, and oxygen. When you need to put a fire out you remove one of these three. Lightning usually starts Forest fires, although fires are started by careless campers and cigarettes as well.
There are three different kinds of fires. There are crown fires, surface fires, and ground fires. A ground fire is underneath the ground. A crown fire starts on the tops of trees. A surface fire starts on the ground. Lightning often starts crown fires.
Fires are a part of nature in the forest. They help regenerate forest growth by clearing an area and opening it up for new plant growth. They help reseed an area by opening pine cones. A fire becomes a “bad fire” when it threatens man or something man has built.
Station information contributed by Glacier Gateway School 5th graders.