Eating pancakes and climbing on fire trucks makes for fun morning in Menlo Park

The 18th annual pancake breakfast was held Saturday morning at Menlo Park Fire District headquarters, a benefit for the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation.

The always well-attended event starts with breakfast. Pancakes get flipped by fire fighters with Boy Scout Troop 222 assisting in the fire-house-turned-dining-room. The event is co-sponsored by Junior League of Palo Alto•Mid Peninsula, Inc., whose members were on hand to sell tickets,  and the Stanford Park Hotel, which donates all the food and set up.

A special treat this year was the display of new firefighting equipment, including  a Heavy Rescue truck (below), a 2018 Pierce Arrow XT. Kids could also climb into the cab of the ladder portion of a hook and ladder truck (right). The new was in contrast to Old Tom and the old original fire station (below, left in photo).

Firefighters performed demonstrations including a jaw of life rescue, and when not climbing on the trucks, kids could enjoy multiple games scattered around the fire house yard.

Top and bottom photo by Frances Freyberg (c) 2018 other two photos by Linda Hubbard (c) 2018