Manassas Vol Fire Co. Hosts Open House

Saturday, October 24, the members of the Manassas Volunteer Fire Company held an Open House at their fire station despite the wet and overcast conditions. The 5-hour event was a huge success with the fire company hosting an estimated 800 citizens of the city. The fire company has served Manassas and the surrounding area for 118 years, but on this day their service came in the form of food, fun, and fire safety demonstrations.

The food was provided by local businesses including Panera Bread, Chic-Fil-A, Red Robin and Costco that the fire company’s Ladies Auxiliary prepared, all free to those attending. There were free balloons, goodie bags and t-shirts for the kids.

The fun consisted of a moon bounce in the shape of a fire truck, door prizes provided by Okras, Costco, Nathan’s Ice Cream, and Glory Days just to name a few, an area where people could try on fire fighting turn out gear under the coaching of an actual volunteer fire fighter. The fire company used their smoke generator to fill a room with non-toxic artificial smoke to simulate the conditions fire fighters face in conducting search and rescue in a burning building. Volunteer fire fighters escorted small groups of people around several obstacles throughout the room using a thermal imaging camera to successfully rescue a simulated victim and showed how this technology has improved search and rescue operations.

Always a proponent of fire safety, the fire company gave demonstrations on vehicle extrication, sprinkler system operation, and provided safety information. In the course of the day the volunteer fire fighters cut apart two cars illustrating how a victim would be removed from the car after a serious auto accident. Costco provided a booth with an array of fire safety items such as fire extinguishers and smoke alarms available in their stores. The City of Fairfax Fire Department participated with their fire safety trailer. A trailer, set up like a typical home where a volunteer fire fighter highlighted common home fire hazards and teaches people how to escape their home in the event of a fire.

The people attending had a wonderful time at the open house and the volunteer fire fighters enjoyed hosting the people they give their time to protect. The fire company thanks all the businesses, individuals and organizations that have supported the operation over the years and it’s looking forward to the next year.