The museum is all fired up about their latest exhibition.
It is an all-local display depicting the 100 years of service by the Prince George Fire-Rescue Department.
Canada Day was the official opening of the exhibit called First On The Scene: 100 Years Of Fire. It includes dozens of artifacts, scores of photos, and the centrepiece is an actual vintage fire truck followed by a firefighter's sleigh.
"It came from a meeting with (firefighter) Trent Blair, who came to see me about the coffee table book they wanted to do, and if they could use our images for that project," said Tracy Calogheros, executive director of Exploration Place.
"But when we got talking, I thought 'wow, we should think about doing an exhibit to go with it.' We got (assistant archivist) Alyssa Tobin involved and she said we had very little hardware in our collection, a lot of it had been donated to the Railway & Forestry Museum. So we called them up and they got involved, they really were full partners in this exhibit, and the firefighters started looking as well, and it grew from there."
So, too, did the coffee table book. It was unveiled at the Canada Day In The Park event as well.
"It's called Frozen Flame: The 100-Year History of the Prince George Fire Department," said firefighter Justin Rivard, one of the many personnel at Lheidli T'enneh Memorial Park on Wednesday for the ribbon cutting.
He is also one of the book's authors, along with Blair and fellow firefighter Aaron Brouwer, plus UNBC researcher Heather Engelland and Erin Weyman, the daughter of retired assistant chief Denis Weyman.
They were set up outside in the blazing sunshine with a fire truck giving sky-high showers to the hot Canada Day revelers, while at the same time selling the first publicly available copies of the book and also hawking chocolatey treats donated by Ohhh Chocolat to raise money for the B.C. Professional Firefighters Burn Fund campaign.
The burn fund is also the beneficiary of the donations from the selfie platform in front of the REO Speedwagon fire truck.
Many current and former firefighters were on hand for the event, and cutting the ribbon was former chief Harold Dornbierer.
"Harold told us the first fire he ever responded to was in that exact same REO Speedwagon," said Blair.
"He has been retired 30 years, and he was a member more than 20 years before that, so that was the truck that was in service.
"Our department is unofficially called the Dornbierer Dynasty," Blair added with a chuckle. "It started with August Dornbierer who was chief from 1950-1964 (the department's third chief in history) and his start date was 1931 as a firefighter. After that his son took over from his dad in '64 to '85 and he started as a firefighter in 1948. Then Harold's brother Mike was chief from 1992 to 1999, and his start date was 1964."
There is a lot of firehall history in that one family and Blair said there is an unofficial goal to literally have history inside the firehall. When the new one is built (Firehall No. 1 downtown has long been slated for replacement), he and many others want there to be a museum constructed right into the design.
"I know this was done in Victoria and the same thing for the City of Prince Rupert, and it makes a lot of sense of preserving these amazing artifacts and photos, and it gives the public another level of interactivity with their community fire department," said Blair.
Blair, on behalf of the book's authors and fire department, gave special thanks to The Citizen, UNBC, Exploration Place and the Railway & Forestry Museum for all the professional assistance making the book and exhibition happen.
The book is already well past halfway sold out of its first run. It is available for purchase at the Exploration Place gift shop.
The exhibit is up until Sept. 20.
