To prevent, to rescue, to assist
Historical Museum of Fire-Fighting Technology hosts classes for high-school students
Among dozens of museums in Kyiv the Museum of Fire-Fighting Technology is the most difficult to access: it is located in the Obolon district emergency unit admitting authorized personnel only. However, there is an exception to every rule. Exceptions are made when the unit hosts competitions among rescue teams or excursions for students from Kyiv, always with advance registration. Although excursions are not frequent (about ten per year), the results exceed all expectations because the fire safety rules presented by fire fighters stick in children’s memory much better than the same rules taught by teachers in class.
The Museum of Fire-Fighting Technology is an object of pride for the Obolon Fire Station, which is, accidentally, Europe’s largest one in terms of occupied area. The museum contains fire engines of the 1920s and 1930s. They are still operational and are even used for the Victory Day military parades in Kyiv.
“One of the vehicles, a Ural-ZiS, was manufactured in 1936. It survived the Leningrad blockade in the wartime, and after the war it was used to fight fires in Kyiv. “Unlike in the other fire engines displayed in the museum, its crew sat on special seats on the sides rather than in the cabin,” noted Serhiy Okatov, chief of the Obolon District Emergency Management Authority. “There is also a several-decade-old water pump vehicle and a fire engine with a two-kilometer fire hose.”
The museum recently acquired a new exhibit. It is a manually operated water pump manufactured in 1863 and bearing tsarist coats of arms. The pump has been restored and now is demonstrated in operation at special events held here. All this information comes to schoolchildren from a fire station officer, who also tells them about the rules to be followed in order to prevent a fire and what to do if a fire starts.
To help kids remember the information, they are shown around the fire station facility. The first place to be visited is the communications center which answers citizens’ emergency calls. According to Oleh Stovolos, chief of the Organization and Emergency Reaction Department, more than 900 calls have been received since the beginning of 2008 with 600 cases of false alarm. However, every single call was reacted to.
“Our fire station is considered to be the most wanted one because we are responsible for a fairly large district, one of the largest residential areas of the capital,” added Stovolos. “Autumn and winter are the busiest seasons for fire fighters because the residents turn their electric heaters on. Many buildings have outdated wiring and short circuits are quite frequent. On some days we receive up to 10 such calls.”
Schoolchildren are also told about this, as sometimes false calls come from miscievous school students. The next stage of the excursion takes the participants to the garage with fire engines. There the Obolon station has a few old-timers-vehicles that have been in service since Soviet times. However, there are also several newcomers: compact vehicles with the appearance of mini-buses but with all the vital fire-fighting equipment, such as telescopic ladders, fire hoses, and even a water-heating system, which is of great help in winter.
Finally, schoolchildren get acquainted with the training ground: a large gym with several athletic tracks where fire fighters learn how to get to the (imaginary) burning object, quickly uncoiling fire hoses or extending fire ladders at the same time. In the corner of the ground there is a mockup of a five-storied building wall which has to be climbed onto with the ladder. As the officers assured us, upon seeing all this, schoolchildren learn the lesson of safety rules excellently. In addition they start to value fire fighters’ job more and have a deeper understanding of their motto: “To prevent, to rescue, to assist.”
