Fire Cancels Fire Department Fundraiser

TAYLOR — Charred wood, singed electrical wire, and soot are all things the volunteer firefighters in the Taylor fire department are used to seeing but never on their own property.
The pavilion the department had used for picnics is now where members cook for their chicken barbeque fundraisers held twice a yea but when volunteers started barbequing on Saturday a small grease turned dangerous.

“All of a sudden it just blew, actually the pit just went up. And when it went up it caught the roof of the pavilion on fire,” said John Tigue, of the Taylor Fire Department.

Ladder Captain John Tigue snapped a few pictures of the flames while other volunteers snapped into action. He said it didn’t take long to put the fire out but it had spread so quickly all 450 chickens were charred and members decided to cancel the funraiser.

The Taylor fire department holds three major fundraisers each year and members said without the chicken barbeque they are out $4,000.  That doesn’t include the cost of repairs to the pavilion.

Tigue said no one was hurt fighting the fire that hit, he says, too close to home.  He also said, even his guys need a reminder every once in a while of how dangerous fire can be.

“Next time somebody tells me, ‘the fire moved so fast’, I have to believe them because of what we saw. I mean, it was a matter of seconds how fast that went up,” said Tigue.

Members of the taylor fire department say they likely won’t reschedule the chicken barbeque and they hope to make up the losses at the next fundraiser, a toy train show in December.