{"id":170702,"date":"2026-02-09T18:45:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T18:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/170702\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T18:45:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T18:45:50","slug":"video-observer-free-fullerton-fire-department-station-tours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/170702\/","title":{"rendered":"Video Observer: Free Fullerton Fire Department Station Tours"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was scrolling through the City of Fullerton\u2019s website when I discovered that local residents can see inside the Fullerton Fire Department\u2019s historic Station 1, located at 312 East Commonwealth Avenue, by scheduling a free public tour. According to the city\u2019s website, free tours are offered at any of the six Fullerton Fire Department (FFD) Station locations throughout the city, but must be approved by a chief officer first. Schools, groups or families interested in experiencing the FFD\u2019s educational walkabout must submit a request form at least 30 days in advance. So, after submitting the form and giving the fire department plenty of notice, I had the chance to tour the fire department headquarters on Commonwealth with Station 1 Battalion Chief Bryan McConnell and Engine 1 Firefighter Keller in mid-January.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ringing the call button next to the historic Commonwealth building\u2019s red front door, I met McConnell, who explained that Station 1 is the Fullerton Fire Department\u2019s largest station. It consists of two stories and a basement. The left side of the station houses administrative offices, while the right side includes dormitory areas, classrooms, a basement gym and living quarters for fire department crews. According to McConnell, firefighters remain \u201cin-service\u201d during tour hours and may have to respond to emergency calls abruptly.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, I learned that these free public tours have been taking place for a long time; so long that McConnell said they started before his time. Later, after my tour, I visited the public library\u2019s Local History Room, but didn\u2019t find any historical documents or records indicating when the FFD first started providing public station tours. When I visited the Commonwealth station, the front-line battalion chief vehicle and reserve battalion chief vehicle were stationed inside; Engine 1 later pulled into the station. McConnell said, \u201cWe house one engine company, which as of now comes out of the station, with a truck company, which is soon to come back down here May first. That\u2019s when we\u2019ll be getting our Engine Six back.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cWith our shift schedules, we work 48-hour shifts, so we\u2019ll have two days that we\u2019ll spend here as a crew. We have three shifts that constantly rotate out. There\u2019s always an engine company and a battalion chief here at all times. We have one ambulance crew: Ambulance 1, which also works 48-hour shifts, and a day car. It\u2019s twelve hours, from eight am to eight pm \u2026 So, there are two ambulances that reside here as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>McConnell then introduced me to what he referred to as \u201cthe out floor,\u201d which, from observation, was an outdoor garage area where firefighting and medical vehicles were parked with \u201cturn out bunkers\u201d lining the side of the room for captains, engineers, and firefighters to suit up and gather their personal protective equipment (PPE).<\/p>\n

\u201cThey used to be in locked lockers, like full wood, fully enclosed, but what we found is that they need to off-gas, because we\u2019re exposed to a lot of carcinogens in our line of work, and so we were noticing that a lot of firefighters were dying at a young age, soon after retirement. We\u2019re trying our best to make it so their exposure to carcinogens is brought down, and this is part of it,\u201d said McConnell.
Outside, on the right side of the station, McConnell pointed me toward the station\u2019s hose tower. He said, \u201cThis is where we hang the hose; whenever it\u2019s tested or cleaned, we hang it up here to dry. We train every day\u2026A lot of the stuff we do can be low frequency and high risk, so we always have to be prepared for those situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

In back of Station 1 is a tall fire training tower, visible from the street, and a Phase 5 burn box. When training, they light fires in the Phase 5 container. McConnell opened the ground floor of the training tower, which looked like a hollowed-out storage unit with props stored inside, including a door prop used for practicing forcible entry into a building and stretchers, which would soon be used for a medical training academy at the end of January. Firefighters also utilize the tower for stairwell operations and other exercises.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>McConnell explained, \u201cWe can rappel out of the windows, off the top of the building. This is also where we hold our fire academies. We have a six-week academy for new personnel, where most of their training takes place. There are some that are off-site, but most of it is done in-house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Training grounds can also be found just past the tower, behind a small wall; this is where they can practice using roof props for flat and commercial buildings. A small workshop for building props was located nearby. There was also an area for ventilation practices and an area for cutting into wrecked cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese vehicles are brought to us by local towing agencies; they allow us to practice cutting cars whenever we have a heavy rescue operation, and someone is trapped in their vehicle,\u201d said McConnell. \u201cWe have to be prepared to do whatever is necessary to cut them out and to give medical aid. As you can see, these cars are already damaged, totaled vehicles, but it still gives us the ability to practice cutting the doors off, peeling the roof back, just so that when the time comes, we are fully prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more about the tours, visit https:\/\/www.cityoffullerton.com\/government\/departments\/fire\/administration\/services-programs\/tours<\/a><\/p>\n

Like this:<\/p>\n

Like Loading…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

\tDiscover more from Fullerton Observer<\/p>\n

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I was scrolling through the City of Fullerton\u2019s website when I discovered that local residents can see inside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,32973,81849],"class_list":["post-170702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-emerson-little","tag-video-observer-free-fullerton-fire-department-station-tours"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}