One, two, three, four, fire truck.
If you listen to the bell, then you sure can tell it's a fire truck.
They gotta drive fast so they can say it today it's a fire alarm.
In a fire truck, in a fire boat, fire fighters. Flying through the air or running through the smoke, fire fighters. And if you've ever been saved, then you know they're brave fire fighters.
In a one, two, five, truck, three, four, fire truck. One, two, three, four, fire truck.
Whoa, look at that! Oh neat, isn't that neat? Yeah, let's go check it out.
Do you think it's real? Of course it's real. It must have fallen off the fire truck that just went by.
Ow! Hey!
Holy moly! Who are you?
I'm Hard Hat Harry, the magical genie. Who may you be?
My name is Matt, I'm ten years old and this is my sister Maya.
I'm eight, but my mom says I'm old for my age, whatever that means.
What are you doing here and why are you dressed like that? And are you a real fireman?
No. Oh, but I am a real genie. And I was just taking some time out of my busy genie schedule to experience for myself the work fire fighters do.
And the equipment they use to do it.
Can we go with you, please?
Well, okay, I love kids. Oh, but first you have to be dressed properly.
Look at what's on your head!
Wow, this is just too cool. Yeah, too, too cool.
There, that's much better. Now we're ready to see how firemen do their job and what they use to do it.
Hmm, dark of night, light of day. It's time to see a fireman day!
Come on, kids, let's catch up with this firetruck. It must be going to a fire.
Look how fast it's going.
Look, fire fighters in action. We'll stand back and let them fight the fire while we watch.
Our fire fighters are on call 24 hours a day, ready to respond to any emergency at a moment's notice.
Their work is dangerous, so their equipment has to protect them and be dependable.
They're trying to save lives and property, so we want them to be safe.
That looks scary. Aren't those firemen afraid?
Sometimes it is scary. That's why they wear special equipment and have special training.
Fire fighters everywhere use waterproof rubber boots with steel toes to safeguard their feet.
The thick rubber soles will protect them from sharp objects like jagged metal, nails, and broken glass,
while the boots' steel toe protects their feet from falling objects.
The rest of their clothing must not only be protective and waterproof, but it must also resist heat as well.
Can you guess why?
Because being so close to a fire, they can get really hot.
That's right, Matt. When fighting a fire, the temperature can reach 1200 degrees.
1200 degrees?
That's what I said, 1200 degrees. And take it from this genie, that's really, really hot.
That's why their clothing is made out of a material that is not only strong and water resistant,
but it also reflects heat as well. And that's very important when you're trying to put out a fire.
Along with his protective gloves, another friend of the fireman is his protective hard hat, or helmet.
Because of its special shape, it not only protects his head from any falling objects, but it protects his neck too.
Oh neat, this is big. Yeah, I'd like to drive it.
Can you guys tell me how firefighters know when something is on fire and where the fire is?
No? People like you and I tell them. When we see an emergency such as a fire, what should we do?
Call 911?
Maya's right, but only when it's an emergency and there are no adults around to tell.
Ah, good point, Matt. When we call 911, an emergency operator answers the phone
and then responds by sending or dispatching the proper people and equipment to meet that emergency.
That's why they're called dispatchers. Do you want to take a look?
Can we really?
Of course, I'm a genie.
Yeah, you forget he's a genie.
You should listen to your sister more often.
911 emergency. Yes ma'am. You think your husband's having a heart attack? What's your address?
937 South Stumberg. 22 returning. Yes ma'am, what's your last name?
We'll be right there. Engine 32 in quarters.
Did you hear all that? A woman called in to say her husband was having a heart attack.
Using equipment like this, the first thing the dispatcher did was to confirm her address.
He then reassured her help was on the way and then sent her the necessary equipment and people to save her husband.
The people who answer our 911 calls are trained to deal with any emergency, like fires. We owe them a lot.
Hey! Do you know what these are used for?
Yes, to fire people, fight down them.
That's right, but do you know why?
To save time. It's faster and safer than running down stairs.
Exactly, Matt. When firefighters respond to an emergency, speed is important.
How do you do that? How quickly you forget he's a genie.
That's right, you keep forgetting I'm a genie.
Hey, where is he?
Where is he? Where are we?
Oops. Sorry guys, I got so excited about climbing up on top of this truck that I forgot all about it.
But only for a moment and it won't happen again.
But since we're here, why don't we take a closer look at this truck.
How does he do that? I know, I know, he's a genie.
You know guys, there's a lot more to a fire truck than just hoses. Let's take a look.
There are different types of fire engines, each with its own purpose, but everyone's favorite has got to be the latter.
You'll notice, when necessary, as soon as firefighters arrive on the scene, the first thing they do is put on oxygen tanks like these,
which allow them to breathe freely when fighting a fire up close.
But each function brings its own unique problems.
Here, giant pods are extended from the sides of the truck and planted firmly on the ground in order to stabilize the engine.
In order to what?
To stabilize, Maya.
That means to keep the truck from falling over when the ladders are stretched way out as far as they will go.
While the ladder truck readies itself, the workhorse of the fire department, known as a pumping truck,
has already attached its main hose to the closest fire hydrant and is running its hose lines to the fire site.
See what I mean about the oxygen tanks?
How far will they stretch?
When fully extended, the ladders will reach 100 feet into the air, and that's important when you need to get up high.
Here, a firefighter takes the hose connected to a fire hydrant several blocks away and attaches it directly to the pumping truck.
Once attached, the giant motors of the pumping truck take the water from the fire hydrant and add more pressure so the water can be sprayed longer distances.
Besides rescuing people, the engine can also spray thousands of gallons of water through the use of a nozzle called a monitor.
The water is taller than you, Harry.
That water can knock me down.
Oh, Neato!
Yeah, it's neat, huh?
But in order to get that much water to pump that high and that fast, there has to be a lot of pressure.
And when I say a lot of pressure, I mean a lot of pressure.
Now, this is a pump truck, and its primary purpose is to pump water from the fire hydrant to create an effective water stream.
Gee, I didn't know so many things were needed to fight fires.
Oh, yes, Maya, this and much, much more.
Let's listen to my friend, who's a real firefighter.
Hi, kids. My name is Firefighter Ripley, and I'd like you to show you my aerial ladder truck today.
First thing we'll start off with is where we actually ride on the piece of equipment.
Up here we have what's called the jump seat. This is where the firefighters ride.
They have a small seat up in the interior, up in the back. They actually ride backwards, so they have a great view of where they've been, but really have a hard time seeing where they're going.
The firefighter carries all of his equipment up here, a helmet, a coat, and his boots.
Up front, up here, is where the captain rides.
You can always tell the captain by the red helmet he wears, such as this.
The second firefighter that rides in this piece of apparatus is in the other jump seat, just like on the other side that we saw here.
The operator, the driver, is referred to as the engineer.
He operates the equipment up here, such as you see all the gauges and equipment. It's kind of like just the same old car that you'd have at home.
It has an automatic transmission. You just put it in drive and away you go.
It's just a little bit heavier, maybe a little bit bigger than the car you'd have at home.
This compartment in here is our saw compartment. So what would you guys guess could be in here?
Let's take a look.
Saws!
We carry many different types of saws.
Now, this saw here is called a chainsaw.
We use these predominantly for cutting holes in roofs.
You guys would go, why are you going to cut a hole in a roof?
Well, when you have a fire in a fireplace, all of the heat and smoke travels out through the chimney.
When we have a structure fire, because there's such a large volume, so much smoke and heat inside the fire,
we have to let it out so firemen can get in and safely put the fire out.
So we utilize this chainsaw to cut a big hole in the roof.
So when you see firemen cutting holes in roofs, you'll know a little bit why.
Okay, we're at another compartment now.
This compartment is called the breathing apparatus compartment or the mask compartment.
Inside here we carry our breathing apparatus.
Inside these tanks is a fresh air supply which lasts for about 30 minutes.
Now, how many of you guys sat around a campfire and had smoke and heat blowing in your face
and it's hard to breathe and it's coughing?
Well, that's just what it's like to be inside a fire.
If we didn't have a breathing apparatus such as this,
it would be very difficult for us to put out the fire or rescue somebody.
It looks just like this, a face piece with a breathing tube that we get fresh air all the time
as we breathe within the 30-minute time period that it lasts.
So this is called a breathing apparatus or self-contained breathing apparatus.
This is called our ropes compartment.
Inside here we carry a whole bunch of different lengths of rope which is up on the top here.
This one's colored orange.
We have white ones and other different colors to signify.
So if a fireman's on a different color rope, we know which one to pull up on if he gets in trouble.
We use this for in case someone...
Have you ever been climbing up a tree and you get stuck, can't go up, can't go down?
Well, sometimes there are people that have maybe, let's say, parked their car in an awkward position.
Like they've driven off the side of a cliff and they're stuck down there and they can't get back up.
So what we do is we use the ropes and we lower a fireman down.
He puts on a harness such as this.
His waist goes through this side here and his legs go down through each one of these.
And then we hook him into what's called... let's see if you know what this is.
What number does this look like?
Number 8, right?
This is called an 8-plate.
It's used as a frictioning device that we pass the rope through and we can lower him down so he doesn't go for a slide.
Now I'm going to interrupt my friend, firefighter Ripley, to show you just how they use this 8-plate.
See how he's wrapping his lifeline and attaching the 8-plate to what they call a carabiner.
Now he's locking the carabiner.
This way that figure 8 will not slip out.
He's ready.
Watch this.
He's going to repel out the window and down the side of the building.
Here he goes.
He's checking the ropes.
Happy he's secure.
Sometimes firefighters not only have to repel down a cliff to rescue someone,
but from a window or the roof of a building to get to a spot they can't reach by foot or ladder.
That could be me one day.
That's right, Maya.
Now if he were a genie, he could go back up that way.
Whoa!
This is all part of the rigorous training that every firefighter must go through in order to learn the equipment
and to be ready for any emergency.
Now let's go back and finish talking to my friend, fireman Ripley.
Here we do have something rather unique though.
Sometimes when we go inside a fire, in fact, why don't you close your eyes as tight as you can?
That's what it looks like inside a fire sometimes.
We can't see our hand in front of our face, and so we can't see where the fire is to put it out.
We use a tool right here which is called a fire finder.
Now it's a funny looking little tool.
In fact, let's see if any of you kids are on fire.
Funny, funny noise.
What I do is I point at all of you, none of you are on fire.
What around here is on fire?
The sun's on fire. Let's see how hot it is.
Sure enough, this gives us a signal.
We can flash it around a room, and when it hits the particles that are produced off of a fire or a flame,
it will actually react with the fire finder and let us know where the fire is.
Let's try it again.
Still burning. This is called a fire finder.
We also make or utilize, these are called floor runners or rug runners.
They're also used to protect the carpet.
Have you ever walked inside your house with muddy shoes and mom goes, get out of the house?
Well, firemen have predominantly dirty feet when we work around a structure fire.
So we lay these out and we can walk right on this rug and not get the carpet dirty.
One of the most important jobs of an engineer is to make sure that he delivers the proper pressure
to the hose line and the fireman down at the end.
Now let's say he doesn't give him enough pressure, then he doesn't have enough water to put the fire out.
And if he gives him too much pressure, well, have you seen a garden hose in the front yard do this?
Well, you can actually do that with a fireman on the end.
So it's very important that the fire engineer utilize these gauges
to deliver the proper pressure to the fireman out on the line.
Maybe I should take you guys to your fire department to watch them fight a real fire.
All right.
Too cool.
You won't forget us this time, will you?
Who, me?
No way.
You're in good hands.
Not yet. I'm a genie.
We're coming down the road.
We gotta drive fast so we can save the day.
It's a fire alarm.
If you listen to the bell, you sure can tell it's a fire alarm.
One, two, firefighters, three, four firefighters.
One, two, three, four firefighters.
In a fire truck, in a fire boat, firefighters.
Flying through the air, a runner through the smoke, firefighters.
And if you've ever been saving, you know them rain firefighters.
In a one, two, five truck, three, four, five truck.
One, two, three, four firefighters.
Jump on board and away she goes.
It's a fire truck.
Pull up the ladder and drag out the hose.
It's a fire truck.
If you listen to the bell, you sure can tell it's a fire truck.
It's a fire truck.
Boy, the life of a firefighter is exciting, but dangerous.
There's a lot of fire on the map, but there's more.
For instance, some fires are fought from in the air.
To do that, a variety of helicopters and airplanes are specially designed
to allow them to carry either plain water, ocean water,
or a special chemical designed specifically to fight fire.
They fly over the hot spots and drop their cargo directly on the fire.
You can see fighting forest fires requires some very special equipment
and some very special people.
Let me introduce you to another friend of mine who's going to show you
a special technique they use in fighting forest fires.
Hi, my name is Wes Schuch,
and I'm the Director of the US Forest Service,
Los Padres National Forest.
The airplane you see behind me is Tanker 27,
which is a retardant-dropping aircraft.
It's an old Orion P-3A Lockheed used for anti-submarine warfare
in the early years and has been converted to a 3,000-gallon retardant airplane.
What it does is drop retardant on forest fires, and the retardant is red.
It's made out of ammonia nitrate, which is some fertilizer.
It has some gum thickener in it, has a little bit of material that they use
to make jello to make it really kind of hold consistency together.
And then it's got the dye in it, and the dye is so that we can see
where we've dropped the retardant from space to space.
Speaking of airplanes, what happens if another airplane catches on fire?
Do they send out another airplane to fight it?
Not quite, Maya, but that's a good question.
Since most airplanes are very big,
the fire trucks they use to fight the fires have to be very big.
In fact, they're some of the biggest fire trucks in the world
and can cost up to half a million dollars a piece.
Well, why don't we take a look at this together?
I want to tell you a little bit about the equipment that we use here at the airport.
It's a lot different than what we find downtown in a building fire
or a rescue down in the city.
We have silver suits that we use.
They reflect the heat.
When it gets very, very hot, it will reflect all of the heat.
We use special helmets with a visor that actually has gold over the lens,
and this reflects a lot of heat.
We also have to wear gloves, protect our hands,
because if our hands are injured, we can't work anymore.
We also have to protect our lungs.
We have to wear a mask with oxygen on the back or compressed air, excuse me,
and we wear this over our face, and that way we protect our lungs
and we go into a smoky atmosphere.
On my shoulder here, this orange box,
this is an item that we turn on when we're in a fire
and in a situation that's dangerous enough that if we were to get hurt
and fall down and not be able to get back up,
if we don't move for about 45 seconds,
this will automatically make a big loud noise
so that somebody knows that somebody has a problem,
and that's primarily why we have this.
We have a bottle here, and you notice there's a gauge down here
that tells us how much air is in there,
and we put it on, and we're about to go into the fire.
We turn the valve on here, put the mask on,
and we can breathe the air,
and it'll protect us from anything that is toxic or too hot.
We have three people on our crew.
We have a captain, who is the red helmet, sits here.
We have an engineer who drives this truck,
and then myself, I drive the other truck.
So there's three of us going out there when an airplane crashes.
We're the first ones on the scene.
This is a specialized truck with a lot of great equipment on it.
We have what we call a bumper turret.
Nozzle here, which squirts our foam out and covers it,
and then up on top here, our captain can show you
that we have a big roof turret, and this thing,
you see those big clapper valves, they open and close,
the clamps shut.
Well, that determines what kind of a stream we have.
When we have it open like that, we have a straight stream.
When we have it down, we spread our stream out and break it up.
This thing here will shoot about 150 yards.
Right here, we have a compartment which contains a high-pressure hose.
Now, we can, as well as squirting the foam out of the turret,
the roof turret and the bumper turret,
we can take this hose out and squirt foam.
Here we are on the side of the truck.
Each side is the same on this particular truck.
We have hose connections here.
We can take these little caps off, and we'll connect our hose,
and we can add more hoses.
We pump a lot of water through these.
These are 2 1⁄2-inch hose connections.
Eventually, we're going to run out of water
after we've shot a lot of foam and water,
so we have to fill the truck back up.
And this is the area we do it.
This is called a water fill.
We have gauges here that tell us how much pressure is going out
on each one of these outlets down here.
This truck holds in its water tank 1,500 gallons,
and this gauge here with the light tells us how much water we have.
My name's Gary. I'm the engineer of this crash truck,
and my job is to make sure the truck gets to the scene of the accident.
I have switches on the dash that allow me to start the truck.
The other switches on the truck make the lights turn on.
We have headsets because the trucks are real loud when they're going,
so we can talk to the tower,
we can talk to the Santa Barbara dispatch so we know where the incident is.
We have some of the controls that you saw earlier on the outside
that control the turrets where the water comes out and the foam.
We're actually putting out the fires.
This one's on the bumper, and this is the one that you saw up above
that allows you to control it from inside.
Okay, that's it for our little tour inside,
and since I'm on duty, I have to put my helmet back on,
and we have to go to work. Thanks for joining me.
Thank you guys for showing us your equipment and truck.
So, if a plane catches fire,
these trucks rush onto the field to put out the fire.
Boy, those fire engines were big.
I like the way they spray foam on the planes from the front of the fire truck.
Well, if you like that, Maya, wait until you see this,
a fire engine that floats on the water.
Wow!
They're called fire boats.
Fire boats are made with special equipment
which allow them to pump water directly from available water sources.
Why did we stop? We were having fun.
And what are we doing back here?
Well, we're back here because you need to be home for dinner,
and it's just about time. Did you guys enjoy yourselves?
I had a blast.
I never knew our fire department did so much for us.
Now I know why they need all that neat equipment.
That's right, Matt.
We owe a lot to the men and women of our fire departments everywhere.
They work hard to make our lives safer.
And what did you learn, Maya?
We learned to never, never, never play with fires. It's dangerous.
All right, Maya, we have to go now, get home before dinner.
So thank you, Hard Hat Harry. We had a great time and learned a lot.
Bye, Hard Hat Harry, and we hope we see you again.
Me too. Bye, guys.
Bye, guys.
Take care. See you later.
Bye!
1, 2, fire truck, 3, 4, fire truck, 1, 2, 3, 4, fire truck
Jump on board and away she goes, it's a fire truck
Pull up the ladder and drag out the hose, it's a fire truck
If you listen to the bell then you sure can't tell, it's a fire truck
1, 2, 3 alarm, 4, 5, 6 alarm, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 alarm
They're coming down the road, better move out the way, it's a fire alarm
They gotta drive fast so they can save the day, it's a fire alarm
If you listen to the bell you sure can't tell, it's a fire alarm
1, 2, firefighters, 3, 4 firefighters, 1, 2, 3, 4 firefighters
In a fire truck, in a fire boat, firefighters
Flying through the air, or running through the smoke, firefighters
And if you've ever been saved, then you know they're brave firefighters
In a 1, 2, fire truck, 3, 4, fire truck, 1, 2, 3, 4, fire truck
Jump on board and away she goes, it's a fire truck
Pull up the ladder and drag out the hose, it's a fire truck
If you listen to the bell you sure can't tell, it's a fire truck
1, 2, fire truck, 3, 4, fire truck, 1, 2, 3, 4, fire truck
Jump on board and away she goes, it's a fire truck
Pull up the ladder and drag out the hose, it's a fire truck
If you listen to the bell you sure can't tell, it's a fire truck
Hey kids, if you want some fun and adventure, be sure to look for more of my Hard Hat Harry Adventure Videos.
In my Real Life Police Cars for Kids video adventure, I show my friends Robbie and Amber what it's like to work alongside the men, women, and fire truck.
Together we explore the ins and outs of police work, from cars to motorcycles, bicycles to cars, and even more.
From the air on the ground and in the water.
In my Real Life Airplanes for Kids adventure video, you'll journey back in time as my young aviator friends Jimmy and Katie learn about the world of flying.
From the biplanes of yesterday to the jet aircraft of today.
Together we'll look inside, outside, above, below, and all around all types of airplanes.
From old ones to new ones, from jets to helicopters, to a jet plane that flies like a helicopter.
We will even travel on board an aircraft carrier to see how airplanes are launched, landed, and cared for at sea.
Each of my Hard Hat Harry Videos promises to give you hours of entertaining fun and excitement.
So watch for me, because I'll be watching for you.
See you on our next adventure!