We want to get out and meeting the community and want them to get out and meet us.”

Firefighter Dean Suchy

Smoke alarms and the sounds of fire hoses spraying down Eddy Street could be heard on Tuesday, Oct. 7 for the Hastings Fire Department’s annual open house. The longstanding tradition overlaps with Fire Prevention Week; local fire fighters, Dakota County Sheriff’s deputies and other first responders come before the community to share safety tips and demonstrate what they do.
From how to arrange pot handles on the stove to when to change fire alarm batteries to what the inside of an ambulance looks like, there was something to learn for all ages.
Inside the fire station, Firefighter Robert Wargo spoke to attendees about the dangers of grease fires. Grease fires, explained Wargo, can’t be put out with water, which is a common misconception, especially in a moment of panic.
Unlike previous years, a helmeted Wargo did not demonstrate what happens when water is poured onto a grease fire with a yards-long ladle inside a fire-proof trailer.
Instead, he heated vegetable oil on a stove, demonstrating the various ways to stop a grease fire. Wargo slid a metal pizza pan over the pot to deny the fire oxygen or recommended smothering the fire with baking soda.
“The biggest takeaway is never, ever, ever water,” said Wargo.
While responses to burnt food is a more common call to the department, grease fires remain dangerous due to their ability to get out of hand quickly.
As it got dark, the department demonstrated how it gets people out of wrecked or otherwise inaccessible cars, cutting away car doors and roofs to get people out with the famous “jaws of life.”
These demonstrations, from grease fires to spraying fire hoses to cutting away cars have stayed “pretty much the same” for the last few decades, said Firefighter Dean Suchy.
So much of the purpose of these rote demonstrations is not just education but familiarization with the department and what it does.
“We want to get out and meeting the community and want them to get out and meet us,” said Suchy.
The open house comes on the heels of the Hastings Fire Department touring across a number of local schools and daycares with demonstrations on engines, equipment, and what firefighters actually do.
Getting families through the station’s hangar doors year over year has tangible benefits. For example, teaching young children not to hide during a fire, especially from the hulking, equipment-laden figures of firefighters is a perennial lesson that can save lives.