When you hear the word museum. most people think of a building with old dirty, dusty things from the past in it. Let's see how Webster's defines the word museum. Museum is defined as an institution devoted to the procurement, care, study, and display of objects of lasting interest or value, or a place for learned occupation." Let's take the last definition, "a place for learned occupation." With that we can put the word fire in front of the word museum, then we get the term Fire Museum. Now what do most people think of when they are going to a fire museum? The average person thinks they are going to a place that has some old dusty fire trucks and other objects used in firefighting.

This is what I think of when I hear the term "Fire Museum." A fire museum is a fascinating place to learn how firefighting has evolved from fighting fires with leather buckets to some of the world's most sophisticated firefighting equipment. So when I walk into a fire museum, I am mesmerized by the fire trucks, uniforms, badges, helmets and photo's of firefighting personnel either fighting fires or after the fire has been doused, in their dirty turnout gear. Then I picture myself back in time seeing how the fire trucks and the men and women on them, wearing there turnout gear, helped save this great country from devastating and killing fires, and in too many cases lost their own lives in the process.

If that is not enough to make you look past your old images of a fire museum, them think back to your childhood when you were a boy or girl wanting to be a fire person simply because you saw fire engines with all of their lights flashing and heard the sound of bells and the sirens blasting away as they passed by. With that in mind, whenever we open the doors of a fire museum to young and old alike, we already have their interest. We can give them some fire prevention tips while they are on a tour. At the end of the tour we can teach them "Stop, Drop and Roll", operation "EDITIT', the proper way to call the Fire Department, and what to say in an emergency, etc. Along with this we will be able to instill fire safety measures in the lives of everyone who comes to the fire museum, this can reduce accidental fires; and most of all, can save countless lives in our communities. That alone should be enough to make every community in this country want to open a Fire Museum.

Why should we have a Fire Museum in our community? The Fire Museum Educational Center will be the aorta to supply the Fire Safety Education to lives. Instead of needing to pulling citizens from heat and smoke-ridden buildings, many more lives may be saved by using the fire museum as an educational center to teach the community fire prevention. Whether paid or volunteer museum personnel, will save more lives in the future by teaching Fire Safety Education in the museum than all the personnel will on the fire scene. Because of the impact of fire museum I would like to say that we owe a big "Thank You", to all of you who have fire museum's around this great country.