School Lessons

How Bunker Gear Keeps Our Firefighters Safe

Go inside our fire engines and aerials with or without Virtual Reality goggles.

Take a Virtual Tour of Ladder 75
Take a Virtual Tour of Engine 75
Take a Virtual Tour of Tower 70

What questions do you have for our firefighters? We’ll work to get those questions answered in future videos or right here on this page.

Isabella, who is in the 8th grade, asked how do you avoid electrical fires.

Spring Fire District Chief Chris vonWiesenthal has the answer:

Electricity is a wonderful thing. It makes our lives so much easier. But, like most things, there can be positives and negatives to everything. Much like a drinking straw, only just so much electricity can be pulled through a wire. A small straw only gives you a little drink, a big straw gives you a big gulp! A small wire only gives you a small amount of electricity and a big wire can give you lots of it.

Trying to pull too much electricity through a small wire causes the wire and electronics to heat up. That is called ‘overloading’. If overloading is too much, and things get too hot, the insulation around the wire can ignite or cause items around it to catch fire. Never plug too many items into a household receptacle, extension cord, or power strip. This can cause overloading. Always make sure the prongs are fully inserted into a plug. If they are not, an item can fall across them and cause a short-circuit with a result of sparks and fire. Here are images that are a few examples of overloaded circuits. Also, water and electricity do NOT mix. Any item that is plugged into an outlet and gets wet, or immersed in water, can cause a short-circuit and a fire. Or worse yet, an electrocution. I hope this helps increase your knowledge, and your safety!