Oregon Hikers

I guess this is somewhat Mt. Hood related...
I was recently doing an AIARE class, whose classroom session was conducted in the Parkdale Fire Station. We took over the main lobby for the class, then moved to the break room for lunch. In the break room, on the table with the TV, was this abomination:
Yep. That's a plastic rat with fiberglass insulation coming out of its face. It's big, too, almost a foot tall. There's got to be a story behind the exploding rat. I'd venture to guess that they rescued it from a burning building, but it doesn't look melted at all...
Does anyone know why the Parkdale fire department has this monstrosity?

I'm going to bring in association with the Hood River Crag Rats. There's probably some affiliation there, you have to live in the Hood River Valley to be part of them and they're somewhat exclusive I hear.