Kitchen fires, police dogs and a winch simulator were just some of the things on show for families at the annual BayTrust Rescue Helicopter open day.
It took place yesterday at the hangar in the Rotorua Hospital grounds, which also included police, fire, ambulance, Coastguard and LandSAR.
BayTrust Rescue Helicopter base manager Barry Vincent said the open day was "an opportunity to open our doors to the community".
He said it allowed the community to have a look at not only the rescue helicopter but the other services they were working with.Mr Vincent said it was a great chance for mothers, fathers and children, who wouldn't usually have the opportunity to get up close to emergency vehicles, to have a look and talk to the crew who manned them.
There were many activities and demonstrations throughout the open day, which also gave services the chance to get some safety messages through.
The fire service had demonstrations where they looked at the effect of water when putting out a kitchen fire, a couple of police dog handlers showed what they did with the dogs catching offenders and children were able to get rides in a winch simulator.
Image 1 of 10: Mahalia Fitzell, 12, and Lachlan Fitzell, 1,
Other activities included the opportunity to sit in the helicopter, a sausage sizzle, face painting and raffles.
Mr Vincent said there had been a steady stream of people.
Philips Search and Rescue Trust group manager of fundraising, marketing and communications Vanessa Richmond said the open day was also a way to thank the community.
She said the BayTrust Rescue Helicopter had nearly 200 missions last year and cost $1.1m a year to operate, with over 50 per cent of that coming from the community who supported it.
Nithin Joseph said he brought his children along because he thought it would be a great day out for them, and his daughter Aimee liked helicopters and dogs.
He said it was also nice to introduce them to the emergency services so they were not really scared if they were ever in the situation where they needed to ask for help.
Aimee Joseph, 3, said she was looking forward to getting her face painted and seeing the dogs catch the bad guys.
Aden McNab, 4, said he liked seeing the helicopter, boat and fire truck.
Locky McNab, 8, said the fire demonstration was one of his favourite parts because he learnt something new - not to put water on a kitchen fire.
LandSAR Rotorua, a volunteer search and rescue organisation, were there telling and showing people what they do.
Log keeper Tiena Jordan said as well as bush searches they did street and house section searching, and shoreline searching and house-to-house interviewing for the Coastguard.
Those who are interested in getting involved can email ynotmiddlemiss@gmail.com and for more information visit www.landsar.org.nz.
