Kids can play firefighter at Orange open house Monday

Kids will be able to experience being a real-life super hero during the Orange Fire Department's annual Open House on Monday, September 14, from 5 to 7 p.m.

The free event for families will be at the city's Central Station, at Elm Avenue and Seventh Street in the Old Orange Historic District.

Activities will include a kids-size firefighters obstacle course with participants practicing using ropes and hitting a target with water from a hose.

Inflatable bounce toys will also be set up for some fun, plus hot dogs, popcorn, and candy will be served.

Tours of Central Station will also be available. The station opened in 2012 after the original Central Station, built in the 1940s, was flooded in Hurricane Ike.

Downstairs in the station is the restored body of the 1920 American LaFrance fire truck originally ordered by the city of Orange in 1919. Through the years, the truck had several owners before the city was able to acquire and restore it.

Also, the upstairs conference room includes antique wood furnishings from the 1880s house owned and built by lumber millionaire Henry Jacob Lutcher and his wife, Frances Ann Lutcher.

The house was torn down in the 1940s, but their grandson, H.J. Lutcher Stark, saved and stored an elaborate carved fireplace mantel, along with carved arched windows and a carved door. The Stark Foundation donated the items for the new fire station.

Tours will also include a look at where the firefighters sleep and eat during their 24-hour a day shifts.

Fire Prevention Week was started 100 years ago as a way to help children and adults learn safety around fires, heaters, cooking stoves, and other common household places where fires can start. It's a time to remind people to double check for fire hazards, develop plans to escape and fire, and make sure smoke detectors are in buildings.

More information about the Orange Fire Department and the open house are available through 409-883-1050.