Visit your firehouse. Today. It takes moments and like visiting your local police, it can build bridges to your public safety community.

The iconic FDNY “Ghostbusters” Ladder 8. This firehouse was the Ghostbusters headquarters in the 1984 movie.

Again, we support citizen and other responder visits to firehouses to both pay your respects and see the operational equipment used to serve neighbors where you are visiting. We wuld like to offer some suggestions on appropriate visitor behavior.

First, please ring the door bell. Even if you have decades of experience in another department – paid or volunteer – it is inappropriate to just walk in. Your visit should take place between 9:00am and 11:00am or between 1:00pm and 5:00pm. It is inappropriate to visit during morning check out, lunch, or after business hours. You should always ring the bell and do not presume anything.

In some organizations they will have shirts or patches for sale. Many larger departments carry an in-house stock of department and house shirts, hats and patches emblazoned with their own logo. The funds earned from these items often stay in-house for staple cooking items, chairs, TVs or other non-safety items. Consider a shirt and a patch.

Finally, should a call go out while touring, know how you are going to expeditiously move out of the firehouse so the building can be secured. Do not leave anything on tables, kitchen counters, etc. and allow the fire responders to do what they do best: respond to other people’s worst day.