Sassy Mama Field Trip: In the line of duty – a visit to Central Fire Station

In our pre-kids era we never thought we’d appreciate activities that would force us out of the house early on a Saturday morning. Activities like that are now pure gold. “Funny” how things change.

Apparently every fire station in Singapore has an open house on Saturday mornings between 9am and 11am. So goodbye long, leisurely weekend breakfast and hello fire station visit!

If you can manage to plan a bit ahead we would definitely recommend going to the Central Fire Station on Hill Street, just off Clarke Quay, because it is connected with the same building as the Civil Defense Heritage Museum. Now doesn’t that sound like fun mamas, Civil Defense Heritage Museum?! Truth is, your little ones, especially if they are boys, will love it.

Park your scooters and stroller at the entrance and enter the fire station’s courtyard where they have brought out all the ‘goodies’. We’re talking fire engines, ambulances, beach rescue buggies, motorcycles and the list goes on. Kids are allowed to go inside the ambulances and try out the stretcher (kind of weird, we know..), climb up the fire engines and jump about in the beach buggy. All this happens to the constant background noise of parents asking, “Are you sure this is ok?” to the people in charge. The kids even get to hold a big water hose and put out a fake fire. To make things even more exciting real firemen are walking about strutting their stuff, showing kids how to slide down the pole as well as answering questions. No real eye-candy for mama to enjoy though, guess you can’t win them all. Bummer.

Once you’re done with the fire station bonanza just head straight from the courtyard into the Civil Defense Heritage Museum. The museum is small but full of hands-on stuff for the kids to play with. They can try on rescue suits, put out another fake fire with a water gun and do some trace drawings of different rescue vehicles to mention a few things. Oh, and we forgot to tell you that both activities are free which is a rare treat in Singapore these days. We therefore decided to pick up some stickers from the museum souvenir shop to contribute in some way.

Mentally satisfied that Singapore has what it takes in case of a general disaster of some sort, we left and headed down to Clarke Quay just in time for a quick lunch followed by gelato.

Saturday morning outing with the boys – check!