As he surveyed the crowd at the Sparks Fire Department on Victorian Avenue, Fire Marshall Bob King had one goal in mind: education.

Rows of tables, dotted with bottles of maple syrup, filled the garage of the fire station on Saturday as Sparks Mayor Geno Martini donned an apron and flipped pancakes. Around the edges of the garage, firefighters handed out pencils, coloring books and tidbits of information on what the fire department does on a daily basis.

“Our goal is to get people to go to every display and learn something about everything we do,” King said.

King, who is the head of the department’s public education unit, estimated that between 800 and 1,500 people would pour into the station throughout the morning for the department’s 20th annual pancake breakfast fundraiser and Fire Prevention Week kick-off event.

The pancake breakfast generally raises about $3,000, which the department uses for fire safety education programs. According to King, the money will be used to purchase pencils, coloring books and other promotional materials for classroom presentations.

The Sparks Fire Department has six full-time fire inspectors who, in addition to building inspections and fire investigations, do classroom presentations at local schools as well as fire safety training for businesses.

“They kind of wear all hats,” King said.

Recently the fire prevention bureau’s work load was increased after it was decided that two positions will remain vacant following employee retirements. According to Captain Bonnie Terry of the Reno Fire Department, children may be seeing representatives from the Reno Fire Department in Sparks classrooms if the Sparks department is too busy to do the presentation.

“I just look at this as something that we would do for them and they would do for us if we need it,” Terry said. “Sparks has always been one of the leaders in fire prevention. They are the department that everyone knows when it comes to the pancake breakfast … right now it (the help from Reno) is a kind of temporary thing because of their staffing.”

Between new building fire inspections, old building fire inspections, fire investigations and public education, King said that the department keeps very busy.

“We are not able to do as much as before,” he said.

Several of the staff perched themselves behind tables of equipment and handouts Saturday to explain their jobs to the public.

Janet Higgins was one of the many who wandered through the displays with her three young children. This is the fourth year that she has taken her children to the fire house fundraiser.

Having never been in a fire, Higgins said she wanted her children to feel comfortable around firefighters if they were ever in a dangerous situation.

“It is a fun way for them to see the fire department,” she said.

Higgins son, Andy, 5, donned his fire department sweatshirt that morning in anticipation of the event.

“I want to be a firefighter when I grow up,” he said.

Higgins’ brother Michael, 8, wanted to be a firefighter when he started going to the pancake breakfast four years ago. Since then he has decided he wants to be a scientist.

Six-year-old Jasmine Higgins pulled her mother’s hand away from the displays, pointing to the fire simulation house outside.

“I like the fire house,” Jasmine said when asked about her favorite part of the event.

Outside the station, firefighters led children through the fire simulation house, where they could see how smoke alarms worked as well as crawl under a cloud of smoke as it spewed from an artificial smoke machine.

In addition to the portable fire safety house, the fire department also let children climb into the various fire trucks, showed off its hazardous materials uniforms and procedures, displayed equipment used for both water rescue and collapsed building rescue and provided tours through its facilities.