Yes, My Love, There Is Such A Thing as The Firehouse World Expo - X

FIREHOUSE WORLD EXPO – X

San Diego – (February 19-23) Is there really such a place as Firehouse World? Could there be a notable, fire service event hosting an appreciation dinner and a benefit for the Burn Institute atop The USS Midway docked in the San Diego harbor? Allow the revered, San Diego Firefighters Emerald Society Bag and Pipe Band to fill your soul with heavenly music followed by the regalia and the respect paid to our nation and to our fallen brothers and sisters during the opening ceremonies. You say you still don’t know if such a place really exists? I understand.

Then how about choosing from a plethora of practical, hands-on training and myriad classroom seminars taught by distinguished  professionals like Fire Chief Michael Hernandez, Mike McDonough, Kimberly Alyn, Ronny Coleman, Richard J. Blatus and the world-renowned, Alan Brunacini, donning his famous, Hawaiian-print shirt and his genuine smile?  And that’s only the tip of the pundit iceberg. Are you coming around, yet?

Sure, go ahead and take a peek through the pages of the course catalog as you drink your morning coffee. No doubt your head will be spinning from the vast array of contemporary, fire service and EMS topics proffered in 2012, now past:  Search ropes; The Promotional Interview; Social Media for EMS and Fire Agencies; Therapeutic Hypothermia; Fireground Radio Communication, ad infinitum, well into the 2013 convention planning stages.  Additionally, the opportunity to garner college credit for attending the seminars is akin to placing a beacon light on top of your academic cake.  However, if this isn’t enough to convince you that a Firehouse World awaits, put on your cushy, walking shoes (in southern California, flip-flops are the norm), right this minute.

Let’s take a long, casual stroll through the utopian, eye-catching exhibits in the 525,000-plus square foot, Hall of Flame where hot products and incendiary services cater to any and all aspects of the fire service, specialized rescue, EMS and transport solutions. Mega-attorneys, polished brass, thermal imaging, PPE,  computer applications, flashing signals, hand tools, steel-toed footwear, safety glasses, ear protection, floatation devices, training simulators and all ambulances, great and small, provide a non-stop, interactive, enthralling experience. Stop and catch your breath.

There’s so many shining, deep red, polished white, screaming yellow and forest green apparatus and extended aerial ladders, you’ll feel your firefighter’s heart pounding with excitement because each and every one of the glittering, behemoth, emergency vehicles appear as though they’re greeting YOU -- and YOU alone.  

You’re actually encouraged to reach out and touch, push, pull, twirl, connect, open, close, board, try on, take off, start and stop the equipment in any one of the innumerable displays! Ask obscure questions! Heck, just ask the basics, for example: “What’s it for?”, “Does it fly?”, “Does it come in purple?”, “Does it make me look fat?”, and my all-time favorite, “How long does this thing take to get from zero to sixty miles-per-hour in five seconds?” Be a gracious recipient of the vendors’ answers, promotional goodies, and colorful brochures, placing them in the eco-friendly bag given to you at registration.

Now, let’s go and climb all over and into that Pierce Ultimate Configuration (PUC), tiller-quint, with the American flag graphically embedded into the front grill. With a flip of a handle on the metal compartment in the passenger cab, you can access engine fluids, a color-coded electrical system, and power distribution modules without tilting the cab. Whoa, buddy! Who thought of such a simple thing? I bet it was a mom.

Configuration show-offs. Ultimate attention seekers. Lucky Oceanside! The department’s new, custom, Pierce quint with the Saber chassis, dons chrome rims and tinted windows. LED lights illuminate opened compartments all around the perimeter, as well as on the inside of the storage units. The rig glows in the dark (and the light) like a blinking, neon sign in Las Vegas. Forget about all of the NFPA specs and the fundamental purpose of the apparatus…just for an hour or so.

Like a little kid, you can spend ten minutes just opening and closing a cab door as an emerging step magically appears from underneath the rig. A whispering buzz issues a sort of  ‘welcome,’ as the step positions into place, (Ooooh).  Of course, you’ll want to validate what you think you just saw.  So, in closing the door, the step disappears into the casing housed underneath. Now you see it;  now  you don’t, (Ahhhh). Just one more time, please.

The aerial ladder, painted a glossy black, is emblazoned with an unmistakable, gold-leaf invitation for rescue: Oceanside Fire Department. The apparatus is so sleek, it actually has a limousine appearance both on the interior and on the exterior (heavy sigh). The department’s new, Pierce apparatus will easily part the heaviest traffic without so much as a siren tweet, simply because of its sheer, magnificent, rumbling presence. Mesmerized, people will stop in their tracks and stare.  I know I did.  All day.  Are you ready to make one of your fire service dreams come true, yet? 

Now that I have your attention, it’s okay to feel a little dreamy while you’re standing in the midst of a fire service vortex, posing no danger but for the size of the event. Let’s go out into the adjacent Sails Pavilion and look up to the crystalline, blue sky dotted with lazy, marshmallow clouds providing a hint of shade in the 75-degree, coastal weather. The landmark, Coronado Bridge picturesquely arches over the harbor in the background of the marina where enviable yachts and massive sailboats are tethered in anticipation of the next sea-faring voyage. 

It just so happened that 332-foot long, Attessa IV, super yacht, owned by construction magnate, Dennis Washington, was moored RIGHT THERE! In the harbor behind the convention center! Really! You could walk right up to it and, well, drool at the polished, dark blue, steel  hull, floating mansion, sans the helicopter resting on the vessel’s pad. Since my photos didn’t serve to demonstrate the breathtaking craftsmanship of the yacht, I pulled one from the web (photographer unknown) to better share the awe.

Yes, my love, there really is such a place as Firehouse World in our quixotic, fire service universe.  The 2012 event was so well-orchestrated, the weather was grand, the networking, phenomenal, and the fire service wares, awesome!  From the kind and accommodating convention center staff, the knowledgeable sales reps, the famed instructors, to the fire service personnel attending from around the globe, the San Diego venue remains unparalleled.  The only caveat is that once you arrive, you may never leave Firehouse World.  Come one, come all firefighters in 2013. Bring your family! You’ll be glad you did.