Napa Firefighters Museum

They’ve been closed since the 2014 earthquake.

This place is terrific, especially if you have young boys, but even if you dont. Its one big room full of all sorts of firefighter memorabilia, and you can easily spend an hour in here.The highlight for my two boys was the biggest of the three fire trucks they have here. Built in 1931, it still works. It is covered with hoses and ladders and other firefighting implements. The volunteer running the museum today (in August 2013) allowed my boys to climb into the drivers seat, ring the bell, wear fire fighter helmets, and generally have a blast on this great old pumper engine for more than 30 minutes.With the boys thus occupied I walked around and checked out some of the other exhibits. There are all sorts of collections: fire extinguishers, fire department badges, fire sprinkler heads, communication equipment used by fire men, fire hydrants, and so on. There are also interesting historical stations, e.g. where you can learn all about the terrible fires that leveled much of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake.A highlight for me was when the volunteer running the museum -- a 30 year fire fighter himself -- opened up one of the old fire alarm boxes and showed me how it communicated back to headquarters using a mechanical gizmo that sent electrical signals that led to the punching of a code on a ticker tape back at HQ. San Francisco residents may find it interesting to locate the old data card for their neighborhood that shows which resources were to be deployed in a 1 alarm fire, which additional ones were to be deployed in a 2 alarm fire, and so on. The volunteer -- I think his name was Lee -- explained this to me in great detail and I found it fascinating.My boys want to return again, and Ill be happy to take them.

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