Fire.

This week we’ve been studying community helpers. We’ve had a few visitors and read many books, but today, the local firefighters came to talk to us about fire safety. Whoa. Firefighters are way, way cool and this was a huge deal.

First, let me say, three out of the four firefighters were women. I loved that. We’ve been talking a lot about the gender stereotypes in many professions and really trying to hit home the idea that anyone can do anything, so seeing these three phenomenal women in the flesh talking about their jobs was amazing.

Now let me be perfectly clear. Firefighters are brave, courageous people. They risk their very lives to help others. I have the utmost respect and reverence for them and the job they perform. After their presentation on fire safety (they covered all the basics: stop drop and roll, practicing an exit strategy at home, having a meeting place outside your home, not hiding from the firefighters, etc.) they made a grave mistake. They asked a group of kindergarteners (over thirty sprouts), “Does anyone have any questions?”

Gulp. Yikes.

We reminded the group that a question is an asking sentence… it’s something you want the answer to.

“What if there are no windows in your house?”

“What if your meeting place is on fire too?”

“What if my phone is on fire?”

“What if your smoke detector doesn’t wake you up?”

“We don’t have fire at my house.”

“How do you know if you should jump out your window?”

“Why is the fire so hot?”

“What if you’re in the bath when there’s a fire?”

I have to give the firefighters credit. They didn’t giggle or laugh and really did their best to give answers to some really ridiculous questions. I wasn’t as admiral. I laughed at least once… I just couldn’t help it. Those firefighters have one of the hardest jobs in the world. They face dangers we can’t ever fathom. I think they might think twice before asking a group of five-year-olds “Does anyone have any questions?”