The Hastings Fire Department hosted the 85th Annual Booya fundraising event earlier this month, raising funds for
the department to support local high school scholarships, Hastings Family Service, and various charitable organizations and community programs, among others.
Fire Chief John Townsend said on KDWA Radio’s In Depth, 85 years is a long time for anything, and he’s proud of the community’s support of the department going back decades.
“In my opinion, these days it’s pretty amazing to have an event like that with as many volunteers that it takes to do that and still be hanging on after 85 years. I think you know most of us in our lifetimes can remember events like that that we’ve known of, and you know they’re not around anymore. So it’s a pretty unique event, and it’s pretty amazing.”
Townsend also said the department will be getting some long-awaited equipment later this year.
“We ordered a ladder truck three years ago. Yep, it takes a few years to get them built, but we’ve not had one for the last three years, so we’re hoping that it’ll be here in October. So we’re getting ready to do some final inspections on it, things like that. It’ll take us a little bit to get in service. Hopefully, it’ll be here for open house, but I can’t guarantee that. Everything, as we all know, costs a lot more. So we’ve been working for a number of years in right-sizing our fleet just to sort of combat that. So we built this truck so that we can utilize it for a variety of things. You know, it can be used as an engine, it can be used as a rescue truck, and it can be used as a ladder. So it’s not a huge truck, but it’s a pretty simple, straightforward vehicle that’ll do everything that we needed to do.”
The department is hosting their annual fall open house on October 6. Hear the full interview on In Depth on KDWA and online at KDWA.com.
[Click the soundbite to listen to the report.]