Fire Station Open House and Public Service Fair

Last Saturday, Forest Grove Fire & Rescue partnered with departments from all over the City of Forest Grove as well as our friends at the Washington County Sheriff's Office, Metro West Ambulance, and the Lifeflight Network when we hosted the annual Forest Grove Public Service Fair. This event started a few years ago as a way of expanding on the already popular fire prevention week fire station open house so that all public safety and city departments could showcase what they have to offer to the community.

Even though this event definitely catered to the younger at heart, there were still plenty of things to see and do and it was an excellent chance for a one stop shopping experience for everyone to get their questions answered about city services in Forest Grove. On hand during the event were representatives from the Forest Grove Library, Parks and Recreation, Water Department, Public Works, Police, and Light and Power departments. Outside of the umbrella of the City of Forest Grove we also had the Washington County Sheriff Crime Prevention Team, an actual ambulance and crew from the county's private ambulance provider Metro West Ambulance, as well as one of the helicopters from the Lifeflight Network landed at our heli-stop for a few hour visit during the event. Children were able to get rides on our fire engines, could walk inside any number of assorted vehicles from backhoes to helicopters and police cars, and our Light and Power Department would take those without a fear of heights up into the air on a bucket truck ride.

So far the fall weather has been fantastic in NW Oregon and we were lucky enough that it continued one more weekend as we were able to have a sun shine filled, comfortable open house. Combining the outstanding weather, and excellent assortment of things to do and see we think that this year was the best ever for our open house. It was hard to get a good count of attendees but we estimate that over 1,000 visitors came through our fire station for this year's event which was a few hundred more then our typical 500 to 700 guests. We are already planning for Open House 2011, so we hope to see all of you again next year.