For one Saturday morning each October, the big apparatus bays at 1300 Burnett Ave. stop being a place where trucks wait for emergencies and become a place where families practice preventing them. The Ames Fire Department's annual open house returns Oct. 10, running from 8 a.m. to noon at Fire Station No. 1, and admission is free.
The morning is built around doing, not watching. Visitors can take a turn at the nozzle of a fire hose, put out a simulated fire with an extinguisher, and walk through an interactive house display to spot the hazards that cause real fires — a pan left on the stove, a cord run under a rug, a space heater too close to a curtain. There are fire safety games for kids, guided tours of the station, and a lineup of vehicles to climb on and around: fire trucks, a Mary Greeley Medical Center ambulance, an Ames Police squad car, and the technical rescue equipment the department uses when a call goes beyond a burning building. Freddie the Fire Truck and Sparky the Fire Dog will be on hand, along with dispatchers and firefighters themselves.
New this year, or at least newly prominent, is the way the morning begins. From 8 to 9 a.m., the department holds a sensory-friendly hour — quieter activities, smaller crowds, and reduced stimulation for visitors with sensory sensitivities, before general admission opens at 9. It is a small scheduling decision with a large effect: fire stations are loud, echoing, red-flashing places, and an hour of calm lets families who would otherwise stay home walk through the door.
The open house lands inside Fire Prevention Week, the national observance that runs from the Sunday to the Saturday in which Oct. 9 falls. Its roots reach back to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the conflagration that killed roughly 300 people, left 100,000 homeless and destroyed more than 17,000 structures. In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge issued the first presidential proclamation of Fire Prevention Week. It is, by the usual reckoning, the longest-running public health observance in the country.
Ames has its own long history with the week's subject. The city's fire department was founded on June 12, 1895, as a volunteer outfit. In 1910 it bought a horse-drawn fire wagon; by 1915 it had taken the name Ames Fire Department, set up sleeping quarters in City Hall, and hired its first paid firefighter. Station No. 1, the Burnett Avenue headquarters that hosts the open house, was built in 1980. The department has been running this open house for years — a 2019 city notice billed it as the seventh annual — so this fall's edition is well past a decade of practice.
What has changed is the message. This year's Fire Prevention Week theme, "Charge into Fire Safety: Safe Charging is a Superpower," points squarely at the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries packed into phones, laptops, tablets, power tools, e-bikes and scooters. Mayor John Haila read a proclamation at a recent Ames City Council meeting recognizing the department's prevention work and warning that those batteries can ignite when damaged, improperly charged, overheated or paired with incompatible charging gear.
Inspector Jason Ziph, who accepted the proclamation on the department's behalf, explained to the council why a device that lives in a pocket deserves a spot on the fire-safety agenda. "These batteries are convenient, but they store a very large amount of energy in a very small package," he said. "When they're damaged, defective or used incorrectly, they can overheat, catch fire or even explode."
His advice is specific. Use the charger and battery made for the device, and follow the manufacturer's instructions — "Don't take a chance with those cheap knockoff batteries or those cheap cords that you find everywhere," he said. Charge on hard surfaces rather than beds, pillows or couches, because soft materials trap the heat that charging generates. Watch for batteries that grow unusually hot, change shape, swell, hiss, smoke or pop; stop using anything showing those signs and call 911. For the larger batteries in e-bikes, scooters and power tools, charge away from anything combustible and keep exits clear. And never put lithium-ion batteries in the trash or the regular recycling bin — Ames Resource Recovery staff can point residents to a proper drop-off.
The open house is where that guidance turns into something a kid can hold in their hands. The proclamation also notes that firefighters will visit local schools throughout October to carry the same lessons into classrooms, which means the Burnett Avenue morning is less a one-off festival than the public face of a month-long campaign.
One practical note for anyone planning to tour the station: the second floor is not accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to the city. The rest of the morning — the trucks, the hose, the games, the quiet first hour — is open to anyone who shows up.
Ziph's summary of the season's message is short enough to remember on the way out the door: "Remember, use the right charger, charge on a hard surface, watch for warning signs and keep the exits clear."