How to fight fires and crimes

Zach Mais popped his head out of the top hole of the S.W.A.T. vehicle Sunday parked in the Newport Beach Fire and Police complex just off Santa Barbara Drive as he and his friends joked about how cool it would be to drive the armored combat vehicle, meant to protect police from all sorts of super-hazardous situations.

“I like the rocket launcher, and all the holes you can place your head through,” Zach said.

Quite a way to spend his birthday, repelling off of buildings and watching things get set on fire, Zach, 9, of Los Alamitos and his group of friends agreed. After taking a peek at the S.W.A.T. truck on loan from Irvine Police, Zach and his friends contended on the subject of their preferred profession, fighting fires or crime.

“I like the police; you can shoot out of the car,” Josh Clayton, 9, of Chino said.

“Fire’s better,” Nick Callanan, 9, of Los Alamitos refuted his friends. “I got to blast the fire hose. It was powerful.”

Among the older kids present at Public Safety Day in Newport Beach, the members of the group were no less excited to get their eyes and hands on all the gadgets and tools safety workers use on a daily basis. That was the plan for the event, geared toward getting kids acquainted not only with the different safety departments throughout the city, but also educating youngsters on the best models of staying out of harm’s way.

Both departments incorporated an educational stance on safety into the presentation with a kid-friendly and fun twist. Families at the event were given rides on a fire engine, a tour of the stations including the police chief’s office, a chance at rappelling from the fire tower, face painting, a look at the Airborne Law Enforcement Unit helicopters, the “jaws of life” ripping a car open, and other demonstrations from lifeguards, firefighters, police, pilots and animal control officers.

New this year to the event, a trailer demonstrating the uses of indoor sprinkler systems, gave kids quite a jump as they were given front row seats inside to watch a kitchen go up in flames and then get dowsed.

“They feel the heat and get a little bit of the smoke, and bam the sprinklers come on,” said John Panici.

“We also dispel the Hollywood myth, when the guy goes in there with a lighter and sets off all the sprinklers in the building,” Panici said. A small slender red bulb inside the sprinkler head breaks when it heats to temperatures of 155 degrees and up, so the system is only set off in the room with the flames.

The departments were already talking about how to improve next year’s festivities.

Newport Beach Lifeguards, unable to bring their area of expertise onto dry land, have to get creative in getting the kiddies to understand of all the concerns involved in keeping the waters safe and unpolluted. Some of the older kids at the event said they thought a petting tank with a few ocean animals might make a keen visual.

KELLY STRODL may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at [email protected].