NEWS INFORMATION FROM

THE OFFICE OF MAYOR STEPHEN R. REED
City of Harrisburg
King City Government Center
Harrisburg, PA 17101-1678
Telephone: 717.255.3040

FOR IMMEDIATE USE
23 September 2003

FREE FIRE AWARENESS DAY ACTIVITIES SLATED FOR PA NATIONAL FIRE MUSEUM

Harrisburg, PA—Mayor Stephen R. Reed today announced that the Pennsylvania National Fire Museum will be hosting a daylong series of free events and activities in conjunction with National Fire Awareness Day, slated for this coming Saturday, September 27, 2003, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., at the Museum at 1824 N. Fourth Streets. The unique family-style event features firefighting displays, equipment demonstrations and youth-oriented activities.

Reed said the daylong salute to firefighting is designed to heighten public awareness of the many facets of firefighting, as well as encourage greater fire safety and fire prevention awareness. The event is being cosponsored by the City of Harrisburg and the Harrisburg Bureau of Fire.

Featured throughout the day, said the Mayor, will be equipment displays from the city Fire Bureau, the highly-specialized Rescue 1 unit, as well as from the newly-established PA Water Rescue Strike Team 1. Rides will be given aboard the city’s tower trucks, and the city’s popular “Smoke House” will also be on-scene to help teach children how to respond in the event of a fire. Children will also be given a chance to handle a real fire hose and douse a ‘working’ fire.

Reed said the Museum will be hosting an Open House with free admission throughout the day. On display will be exhibits, artifacts and demonstrations about firefighting since its earliest days to current practices. Horse-drawn fire wagons, antique fire apparatus and artifacts, and more contemporary equipment and displays will all be available, including a special exhibit that chronicles the work PA Task Force 1 and the city’s Urban Search and Rescue Team, during its mission at Ground Zero in New York City following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

“Firefighting has been at the forefront of community organizing for over two centuries,” said Mayor Reed. “More so than any other public or civic pursuit or endeavor, firefighting has always been the one thing in which a community collectively engages. Long before there was a need for paved roads, public water systems, trash collection or any of the many other things one normally thinks of as town services, citizens have banded together in common purpose to fight fires. In many cases, communities have grown or evolved as a direct result of the formation of their fire departments.

“Firefighting is among the toughest and most dangerous pursuits. Every day in this nation, tens of thousands of both professional and volunteer firefighters put their lives on the line in order to protect other lives and property. Their courage, dedication and sacrifice are deserving of our full recognition and appreciation.”

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