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The Laurentian North Fire Fighters Mutual Aid Coalition is hosting a Silent Parade commemorating those lost or injured in terrorist attacks on our nation on September 11, 2001.

Apparatus will muster in Tower, Minnesota at 1130 with the Silent Parade commencing at 1200. Parade route will travel through the Coalition service area with brief stops in Breitung, Eagles Nest, Morse-Fall Lake, Ely, Babbitt, Embarrass, Pike-Sandy-Britt, Vermilion Lake, Greenwood and Tower.

Expected parade travel time is about 3 hours. No sirens or bells – this will be a Silent Parade of tribute. Fire, EMS and LE invited. For more info contact: Geoff Galaski 218-750-7800 or Dave Durrant 218-248-0228

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Sunday Morning – Expo Week Begins

If you've been scanning the Upcoming Events posting each Wednesday, you may have noticed the announcement for the South Atlantic Fire Service Expo that is held each year in conjunction with the North Carolina Fire Chiefs Association annual conference in August.  This event has been growing in popularity and attendance steadily since they moved the event to Raleigh, the state capital, about three years ago.

They put on a good program each year and one of their events is a fire department parade held on Saturday, the last day of the conference.  The parade entries include modern fire apparatus, antiques, pipe bands, and honor guards.  The organizers have asked us to pass along to everybody that registration for parade units is now open and if you have a vehicle or represent one of the marching groups, you are encouraged to sign up now.  You can get more information and begin the registration process online by CLICKING HERE.  Raleigh is a friendly city and I know you will enjoy your visit, so check it out.  Thanks.

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Speaking of Expo's, the GeezerGang is packing up our booth furnishings and banners, and getting ready to head up to Baltimore for the big Firehouse Expo at the Baltimore Convention Center that begins on Tuesday.  The Exhibit Hall opens Thursday morning and will be open on Friday and Saturday when the show concludes.  If you're planning on attending, or perhaps thinking about it, then don't forget to register online before you go and if you follow these simple directions, you can get into the Exhibit Hall for FREE, courtesy of Firegeezer:

1) Go this webpage: https://www.xpressreg.net/register/fire071/reginfo.asp?st=&o=85867&pc=&iq=&aban=

2) Fill out first two parts of Step 1, then in the Promo Code box enter: EX79

3) When you get to Step 3, click on Exhibit Hall Only. If you entered the Promo Code in Step 1, the fee will be showing $0 (watch out for the automatic subscription to the magazine just below. You have to de-select it or you're stuck with a subscription.)

4) Finish out the registration form. You will pick up your badge at the Expo registration counter.

5) Last step: Be sure to stop by Booth #743 and say hello!

The booth is empty now, but the whole gang along with theSTATter911 folks and the
Firefighter Netcast crew will be set up at the opening ceremony on Thursday morning.

Well, we'd better get this emergency equipment checked out first before we start loading up, so while you get started on that, I'll get a fresh pot of coffee going in the Bunn-O-Matic.  See you back in the day room in a little while…..Sunday routine today.

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Monday Morning – Parade Season is Here

The annual St. Patrick’s Day parades around the country kick off the long-awaited parade season for the year.  In many areas it is still pretty chilly in mid-March, but that doesn’t stop the pipers as they march along celebrating the Irish heritage that is so prevalent in the fire and police departments.  The two “biggies” are the huge parades in New York and Chicago on the 17th with the Windy City continuing its novel practice of pouring thousands of gallons of green food coloring into the Chicago River turning it green for the entire day.

Most communities hold their parades on weekend days so that both marchers and watchers have a better opportunity to attend.  So you end up with about three weekends in March that are filled with the first parades of the year.  This was the case in Alexandria, Virginia, on March 5 when the Northern Virginia Firefighters Emerald Society pipe band gathered in front of fire station 201 for this group photo prior to the stepping-off of this year’s St. Patrick’s Day parade in that city.

In Delray Beach, Florida, they hold what is claimed to be the largest St. Patrick’s parade in Florida and nobody doubts that.  They combine it with a sizeable participation of fire trucks, firefighters, and more pipers making it also one of the state’s biggest fire department parades.

A big part of all community parades through the Spring and Summer months are the firetrucks that are always crowd favorites.  The local FD’s send pumpers and trucks over to fill out the ranks and some areas are fortunate to have local antique firetruck clubs that can bring some old engines over to add to the gaiety of the day.  Yesterday (Sunday) the Raleigh (North Carolina) Fire Department Historical Society gathered some of their antiques for a photo shoot and it looks like they had fun doing it.  I’ll bet they’re looking forward to “parade season,” too.

Alright, it’s time for us to march over to our equipment and get it checked out for today.  Remember it’s Monday, so the long checksheet today.  I’m going to get more coffee started.  See you back in the day room later.

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Rose Parade Rememberance

Happy New Year everybody. It’s 0800 local and I am getting ready to watch the 2011 Tournament of Roses parade. Kind of sissy I know, but I like to get up early on New Years day and watch it. This year, there is a unique float in the parade, one that I felt worth posting about.

This is the artists conception of a float honoring the fallen in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The effort was spearheaded by Jerry Thomsen, a Los Angeles County firefighter who responded to the WTC disaster in New York.

Go to Captain Schmoe’s website, Report on Conditions, to see a picture of the float from today’s parade (HERE)

2011 Rose Parade Tribute Float website (HERE)

Mike “FossilMedic” Ward

Local 2928 photo

The Palm Beach County Firefighters have extended an invitation to all firefighters everywhere, volunteer, career and retired, to join their fellow firefighters in this winter’s great event.  A unique feature this year will be the “flag tunnel.”  You’re already familiar with the traditional pair of aerial ladders raised and suspending a large flag to march under.  Plans call for many such flags along the parade route creating a spectacular display.

And what would a fire department parade be without the antiques, too?  There will be front-line as well as antique firetrucks and of course, pipe bands.  A different department leads the parade each year and next year’s step-off leader will be Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.

Local 2928

There’s a lot more information in this 8-page .pdf document HERE.  The Local also has a 38-image photo gallery of last year’s parade HERE.

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It’s still summertime, and that means the silly season is still in progress.  Which is another way of saying that still another dubious achievement has been reached by setting an obscure “world record.”  This latest conquest was reached in Mexico City where 2,433 people became the largest number to have simultaneously set off  “Mentos geysers.” 

This stunt, that any 13-yr.-old boy can demonstrate for you, involves dropping a Mentos candy mint into a bottle of Diet Coke and watching the chemical reaction create an eruption that reaches 15 or 20 feet high.  Naturally, this event was recorded for posterity and posted on YouTube:

Ahhhh…..Summertime!

Ok, we’d better get serious and get this equipment checked out now.  I’m going to start some more coffee.  See you back in the day room in a little while.

The Summerfest is also the venue for one of the state’s largest fire truck parades and this year the organizers decided to go for a record.  According to the Guinness Book of (millions of) Records, the largest firetruck parade ever held was in Switzerland in 2006 when 159 firetrucks of all kinds paraded.

So the word went out …. send us your fire engines, trucks, squads  – modern and antique.  We’re going for the record this year.  And entries from all over the Dakotas and Minnesota came rolling in.  Firefighters wanted their trucks to be in the record-setter.  But with just five days to go, they were two entrants short of the minimum.  And there’s always the probablility that one or two won’t show up for one reason or another.

The urgent call for HELP was broadcast and the friends of Casselton came through.  25 new entries came in during the last 24 hours.  When the parade stepped off, the judges were ready, taking photos of both sides of each truck as they rolled along the route.  On Monday all the photos along with the certified entry blanks will be sent in to the Guinness folks and Casselton should be proclaimed the new King of the Firetruck Parade Hill with 181 fire trucks.

Essex is the second-0ldest continuously operated fire department in Connecticut.  They were founded on June 22, 1833 and will be celebrating their 175th Anniversary on Sunday, June 22 of this year.

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The day’s festivities will start with a large FD parade through town starting at 12:30 pm.  There are approx. 70 fire departments from around New England along with representatives from Essex, England, scheduled to participate.

Following the parade which finishes at the FD Headquarters station, the celebration continues with free food, drink, live music and demonstrations.  An apparatus display area will exhibit both antique and modern fire equipment.

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Essex hand-drawn hose cart
circa 1900

Essex Fire Engine Co. #1 is an all-volunteer organization operating out of two stations.  To learn more about the FD as well as the Anniversary plans and the history of the department, go to their website HERE.

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