Grand Isle had a night of excitement Sunday, when local firefighters had to handle a chimney fire before they could participate in the 7th annual Grand Isle Light Parade.
The trucks passed the Grand Isle General Store and arrived at a house with smoke and embers shooting out of the top of the chimney. Firefighters immediately went to work, and within a few minutes had the sparks eliminated and the smoke cleared.Right as the parade participants were gearing up to make their way down Main Street, fire trucks from the Grand Isle Fire Department zoomed down the street lit up in more than just Christmas lights.
Gary Campbell, the Grand Isle fire chief and an organizer of the parade, said the cause of the fire was a chimney that had not been cleaned in a “few years.”
“It’s that time of the year — people need to clean their chimneys,” he said. “If you burn wood, you need to clean your chimney.”
Campbell said his firefighters did what they were supposed to, and that the department had recently conducted a chimney fire training.
The parade continued on schedule despite the absence of three of the parade floats that were to be operated by members of the fire department. After the last float passed the scene of the chimney fire, the fire trucks and Knights of Columbus nativity float (driven by firefighter Brian Bouley) fell into line and finished the last leg of the parade as it circled back to the Grand Isle Community Center.
Inside the community center, volunteers served children and their families hot dogs and hot chocolate while they waited in line to see Santa.
Katherine Theriault, 4, got to be part of the parade and rode on a mini train pulled by a truck. She also saw Santa after the parade, but said she wasn’t sure what she wanted for Christmas yet.
“The parade was so good,” Theriault said. “My favorite part was Santa Claus.”
As the children waited to see Santa, the float winners were announced with honorable mention going to the firefighters for their “hard work keeping the community safe, so [they] could have events” like the parade. The Homecoming Committee won third place, Misty Meadows won second, and the Nativity Float won first place.
This story originally appeared on Fiddlehead Focus.