DENVER (CBS4)- Firefighters in Denver hosted a Fire Ops 101 Academy on Thursday. They wanted civilians to know what it felt like to be a firefighter, if only for a few minutes.

Denver Firefighters Local 858 welcomed CBS4 Traffic Specialist Jane Monreal when she suited up in firefighter gear. Watch her report below.

The crew also welcomed Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and members of the Denver City Council when they suited up for the academy.

During the session, they experienced what it was like to wear the gear of a firefighter and participate in “hands-on” training scenarios like ladder operations, auto extrication, search training with live smoke and a live fire training scenario.

Denver’s Station 8 is the busiest firefighting station in Colorado, making approximately 10,000 runs a year.

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that Local 858 makes 10,000 runs a year.