April is here and that can only be a harbinger of good things to come... besides the real baseball season starting where we once again we can look to the Yankees to finish ahead of the Red Sox... oops that's the column for the other publication. For the fire service it means that it's time for the Fire Department Instructors Conference in Indianapolis. If you haven't been you are missing a golden opportunity to learn some very useful things to use on the job. You get a chance to meet and hear some of the best instructors and lecturers we have today. You will get a chance to see and feel a lot of products and get some face time with the sales reps and manufacturers. Use this time to put them on the spot and tell them what works and doesn't work. If you have been to the FDIC, one event you don't want to miss is the Open House on Friday night hosted by the Indianapolis Fire Fighters Local 416. This event gets bigger every year as recorded by the ever increasing number of kegs tapped. This is a great chance not only to socialize with firefighters and friends from around the country but it is the place to see public fire education done right. Allow yourself plenty of time to tour around a first class facility. A novel idea might be to walk to the Open House. It's only about twenty minutes from the convention center. Not only will you save yourself the hassle of finding a parking spot you can burn off some of the extra calories I know you'll put on during the week. You will also get a nice walking tour of an up and coming neighborhood. On the site of a former firehouse lie the firefighter's union hall and offices, a fire museum, a firefighter's monument and one of the premiere facilities for public fire education in the United States. And what else needs be said of the thrill from the drone of the bagpipers firing up their pipes and drums through the evening! There is plenty written and talked about for public fire education but Indy is where it really gets done and done right! The facility has a first class classroom with state of the art audio-visual components, real world mock ups for a stove fire, means to egress from a burning home and even has the cranky old neighbor to ask to report the fire. School children from all over the Indy Metro area attend during the school year. They get lessons from professional educators and firefighters and get a chance to practice fire drills, report a fire or emergency and they are reviewed by the harshest audience possible; their classmates. Fire companies are detailed to the center on a rotating basis to assist and also serve as a role model for aspiring young firefighters. Nearly ten-thousand students a year are cycled through the program and in the ten years of existence almost one hundred thousand school children and future Indianapolis taxpayers have walked and crawled through the simulated smoky hallways. At the FDIC you'll see and learn a lot about firefighting. At the Open House you'll see and learn a lot about firefighters. Maybe you'll even ask why it can't be done in your department.