HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — Holland’s annual kick-off for Fire Prevention Week and a month-long awareness campaign was a little different this year. The trucks made the trek along Holland’s Eighth Street. But the pandemic still altered the annual event, which typically includes treats and booths at the Heeringa Holland Civic Center Place: That part was canceled.
Those changes didn’t matter Holland residents Sophie Adams, 7, or her brother Mason, 5. They and their parents, Scott and Sarah Adams, enthusiastically waved and shouted greetings to those passing by. Sophie and Mason got firefighting temporary tattoos and police-badge stickers from public-safety professionals walking the parade route.
She said the parade was “amazing,” although at times she wasn’t thrilled with the volume of the sirens.
Holland Fire Marshal Bret Groendyke told WHTC last year’s parade cancellation “was a real bummer.” Listen to Groendyke’s full interview with Gary Stevens at https://omny.fm/shows/talk-of-the-town/holland-fire-marshal-bret-groendyke-oct-1
Of Holland’s 26 building fires so far this year, one of which was intentionally set, Groendyke said, which is a 4 percent arson rate. He’s been a firefighter for 19 years, and said he could only think of “one or two instances” in which people set fires for insurance. More commonly, he said, arson fires are set to destroy some kind of criminal evidence.
Since July 1, most of Holland’s building fires were traced to cigarette smoking and electrical issues, he said.
One fire in recent memory, he said, did more than $1 million in damage and caused by “a 44-cent cigarette,” which he suggested is a great incentive to quit smoking.
Holland’s annual Fire Truck Parade started at 7 p.m. near Columbia Avenue on Holland’s Eighth Street to Maple Avenue, featuring trucks from the City of Holland and surrounding communities — Allendale, Zeeland, Graasfschap, Georgetown Township and others. See the photo gallery: whtc.com/pictures.
Every day is fire-prevention day for fire-safety officials. But October brings extra public outreach, with the changing seasons and windy, sometimes dry weather.
Holland residents are barred from burning leaves in their yards but they are allowed to have recreational fire in a stand-alone enclosed or in-ground fireplace that is 36 inches in diameter or small, Goendyke said. Those recreational fires must be kept at least 15 feet away from a vehicle or building, he said.
Families and individuals lined Eighth Street, some children clapping their hands over their ears to muffle the sounds of sirens, others shouting with joy. Many waved and jumped up and down when firefighters waved back from the big trucks, all of which were waxed to perfection.
The parade included a color guard and bagpipe band, as well as vehicles for support agency
Fire Prevention week and the month-long awareness campaign started after the “fires that swept the Midwest in 1871,” Groendyke said, noting the Chicago’s is the most-famous, but Holland suffered, 150 years ago this year.
Groendyke said the Chicago fire was not caused by a cow, and said one of the worst was in Door County. Holland’s annual Fire Walk Tour is set for 1 p.m and 3 p.m. Oct. 9, 2021, organized by the Holland Museum, which Groendyke plans to join. Details: hollandmuseum.org/event/the-night-america-burned.
