Does your town's fire station do birthday parties?

[mtemm]

a couple of months ago my 4 year old was invited to a friend's birthday party at the town's fire station. I never even knew this was an option anywhere! They had a huge room for cake/presents/games, and a fireman or 2 (dh took our son, I missed it so not sure) took the kids on a tour of the station and of the firetrucks. They got to watch a fireman go down the pole, and they showed them all their gear and such. It was a HUGE hit. My son still talks about it. I'm considering calling our town's fire dept and asking if they do the same thing (his friend lived a town over) for ds's 5th birthday.

Is this common? Or could it be unique to the town my son's friend lives in?

 

[monarchsfan16]

I doubt that our fire station does that as our's is almost entirely volunteer (I believe we have 1 or 2 full time firefighters) so the station isn't really staffed. That being said, they will bring a truck to a party. In fact I went to a party last year for the little boy I used to babysit for (he was turning 3), and his mom surprised him by having the fire truck come. The fire fighters were great with the kids, letting them crawl through the truck and play with the lights and horns (not the sirens though). They did this for free, although the unwritten rule is the send a donation to the FD after the appearance. They can't exactly book the truck for a birthday party; if there's an emergency they don't guarantee that they'll be able to show, but they do try awfully hard.
Long story to say that you might also see if, if they won't do a party at the station if they'd bring a truck by a party at your house

 

[kdibattista]

DH's firehouse is volunteer and it does have a hall available to rent. Although they don't do kid's parties per say, they will give kids a tour of the firehouse and have some of the guys dress up if it's a member's party. They also drive the truck around the neighborhoods every year with Santa on top the week before Christmas .

 

[JVL1018]

Mine does, but only because my husband is a firefighter. LOL

The rooms used for parties are not rented out, so no, people can't have parties at the firehouse unless you are a firefighter or know one.

We've had a couple of friends ask to use the firehouse for a party and they are allowed provided DH is there the entire time and they make a small donation($50 or so) to the fire company.

I bet a lot of places do rent them out though!

 

[Tink&SquirtsMom]

We went to one. They let the kids wear hats and boots for pics, shoot the firehose, climb in the trucks, etc. They didn't rent the room, just asked for a donation to the firehouse (they didn't suggest any amount so my friend gave what most bday places charge). I've also known them to bring firetrucks to a birthday party. Again they just request a small donation and you arrange the day in advance. Provided there are no castastrophic emergencies they will be there.

 

[debbi801]

Here, the volunteer ones do have kid parties, but the "real" ones don't. Some of the fire houses here are more equiped to handle parties than others. At one (we're thinking about having DS's party there next year), the kids can try on the uniform, climb on and play on a stationary fire truck, play in a miniature fire house, and go for rides on a fire truck.

 

[mtemm]

this is really interesting to me because I just never knew any did it at all. And it was such a big hit with my son...all the kids, really. One of his classmate's dad is a firefighter for our town, I think I'll ask him when I see him next. ds's birthday isn't till february, but I need to get moving on what I'm going to do soon.

 

[hpygrll]

Ours does! I had my son's 3 year old party there. Didn't cost anything. They had a room with fire hats for everykid - they took us on a tour and the kids got to slide down the pole and sit in the fire engines. It was fantastic!!!!

Jenny

 

[Samandmom]

Very cool I have never heard of this. My DD has a birthday coming up in January but I'm sure she would not be interested. Maybe my son would like this. I will have to see if my town does this.

 

[ZPT1022]

I knew they would come to the school or to scout meetings for a safety chat and a demo but this is really neat!

 

[DVC-Don]

FD no, but the town ambulance has a meeting room they rent out for this stuff. It's free for girl scouts, boy scouts meetings.