Take Your Kids to the Lexington Fire Prevention Festival

We live in Masterson Station, so the Lexington Fire Department's Fire Prevention Festival is a five minute drive for us, and this year we finally went. It's the department's big open house, held at the Masterson Station Park fairgrounds on Leestown Road on the Sunday that opens Fire Prevention Week every October. It's free to get in, the demos run all afternoon, and most of what the tents hand out is free too. We went with our nephew Phillip, and he had an absolute blast.

Parking

Parking was easy. You pull into the park and follow the traffic officers, who guide you to a spot in the field. If you've been to the Bluegrass Fair, it's the same system in the same field, and it will be familiar.

The trucks at the gate

The first thing you see is the ladders. Several trucks had their aerials run all the way up, and two of them were nosed together to hang an American flag between them, which was cool and appropriate. There were a lot of fire trucks and ambulances, and sirens went off here and there all afternoon. I almost threw my hot dog up in the air when one of the engines honked its horn. Be ready for a somewhat noisy afternoon, but that's just part of it, and the kids get all into it. It was really neat to walk around them.

Two antiques were parked at the entrance with posters telling their stories. The 1966 Pirsch 41E is a 100-foot aerial ladder truck that served as Lexington's Aerial Company 1 from July 1966 to 1987, delivered for $49,839. It was sold to the Harlan Fire Department and ran there for decades. This year a retired Lexington firefighter named Bob Hendricks, whose first assignment when he joined the department in 1977 was that very truck, bought it and brought it back to Central Kentucky. It was sitting at the gate with its ladder in the air.

Next to it on a trailer was the 1911 Knox, Lexington's first motorized fire engine. The department bought it new for $8,600 and ran it out of the old Central Fire Station on Short Street. It was wrecked at Sixth and Limestone in January 1928, rebuilt the same year by University of Kentucky engineering students, and put back in service as a reserve. The department still owns it, and the poster says it's believed to be one of only two or three Knox pumpers left anywhere.

The live demos

There's a set of bleachers facing the demo area, with the schedule posted in English and Spanish. The demos run in a loop. Rope rescue, vehicle extrication, fire attack, a drone demonstration, and then rope rescue, extrication, and fire attack again. So if you miss one, it comes back around. The first demo started a little after two and the last one wrapped up around six.

We watched the vehicle extrication. The crews from Engine 9 and Rescue 1 took an older red car and cut the roof off to show how they get people out after a wreck. Then they peeled the dashboard back, which is what they do after a head-on collision. It was incredible what their specialized tools could do. Cars have gotten better made over the years, and the tools have had to get stronger to keep up. One note. Their tools have never been used on a Cybertruck, so drive safely so you don't have to be the guinea pig.

We left for a while and came back for the last fire attack of the day. This is why you come to this festival. The kids loved this. Here is the video.

Rides, bounce houses, and the course

Behind the tents and the stage there's a loop path where they give fire truck rides. Several engines, one of them an older model, were taking kids and families around the loop with the siren going. There were two or three fire truck bounce houses for the little ones, and a firefighter combat challenge course laid out with rescue dummies, ladders, and cones like an obstacle course. Parks and Recreation had a stage set up with music. They were jammin' to MC Hammer, the Backstreet Boys, and some other nostalgic acts.

My wife also spotted a lineup of city vehicles the kids could climb on, a city bus, a school bus, a UPS delivery truck, and a trash truck. Kids were getting on the school bus and the city bus, and one kid was up in the UPS truck honking the horn.

The tents

There are a couple of rows of tents in front of the stage, and almost every one of them was giving something away. Lexington Emergency Management, Community Corrections, Lexington Water Quality with free reflective vests, Waste Management with free construction hats, Silent Guard with free plastic firefighter helmets, the American Heart Association doing CPR demos, MetroNet with football squishies, LexCHIP with COVID tests, hand sanitizer, jump ropes, and bike locks, and a couple dozen more. A fire dog mascot and a couple of Paw Patrol characters were in the crowd for photo opportunities. I personally managed to get a free COVID test kit and a couple of nice plastic drinking glasses that change color. Hooray for me!!!

This is Phillip after he hit the tents. Free helmet, free vest, and I was holding his bag of goodies.

Food

Kettle corn, Tiki Tiki shaved ice and ice cream, Beverly Ann's cookies, and Traveling Tom's coffee were the trucks, and you pay for those. At the shelter in the back of the park they were serving hot dogs, chips, and bottled water, and they were free. Of course I had to dive right in. I felt like I had to call 911, it was a code red emergency, and I needed Lieutenant Hot Dog to rappel down and extinguish those hunger pains for me. So this is a great option for an all day event where everything, including the food and the entertainment, is completely free. You even come home with bags of free stuff!

Should you go?

Single couples with no kids would find it interesting to walk around, but it's really geared toward kids, and they would have an absolute blast. Consider Masterson Station, especially if you have kids. This comes around every year.