The Fireman Snowman

There was once a snowman, named Snowy, who longed to be a fireman; to ride in a big red fire engine; to wear a yellow fire helmet and put out fierce fires with a hose.

But when he went to his local fire station to apply for a job, the fire chief who saw him just laughed.

“A snowman can’t be a fireman”, he said, “It’s preposterous”.

“Why not?”, asked the Snowman.

“Well, a snowman’s made of snow and snow melts. If you entered a burning building you’d just turn into a puddle”, said the chief.

Snowy was very disappointed.

“Oh”, he said, a gloomy look upon his face.

Just then, however, as the snowman was about to leave the fire chiefs office, the phone upon the chiefs desk rang and after answering it, suddenly, he said to Snowy,

“Wait, Snowy. I may have a job for you after all”.

Then ringing the station alarm bell and getting all the firemen together and handing Snowy a yellow fire helmet, they all got into a fire engine with a big ladder on it and, with blue lights flashing and siren wailing they roared off down the road to where the emergency was.

And when the fire engine stopped again Snowy saw that it was in a public park; and getting out, he saw an icy lake upon which a dog had got stuck.

“My Dog went out onto the lake. He was chasing some birds but the ice was too thin”, said the Dogs frantic owner to the fire chief, “I’m afraid to go out and get him, the ice is so thin that I could fall through it”.

“Don’t worry, Miss”, said the fire chief, “We have an ice and snow expert with us”.

Then Snowy went out onto the frozen lake. It was so thin that, under the slightest weight it started to crack and snowy fell through the ice a few times, plunging up to his carrot nose in freezing cold water but, fortunately, because Snowy was made of snow, he didn’t feel the cold and then, eventually, reaching the centre of the lake and the dog climbing upon his shoulders, snowy managed to carry the dog safely back to its owner.

“Oh, thank you Snowy”, said the dog’s owner as he handed her dog back to her, “I was so worried”.

“No problem, miss. Just doing my job”, said Snowy.

And after they went back to the fire station, the fire chief made Snowy the fire stations official ice and snow expert; he even gave him a badge to wear.

It wasn’t exactly what Snowy had hoped for. He still had dreams of rushing into burning buildings and saving people like a real fireman but it was good enough and, every year, when it got cold and the firemen had to deal with a problem that involved ice and snow they would always call in Snowy, the Fireman Snowman to help them.