What If There's a Fire During the Parade?

Ever worry about fire breaking out in a small town, while the Fire Department was in a parade?

Probably not.

It's happened, though: during the 2007 Loonfoot Falls' River Revel Parade.

I was watching the parade from a spot between Birch and Alder Streets, on Center Avenue. Fire engines at the head of the parade were about two blocks away when one of Loonfoot Falls' finest loped to his car, talking earnestly into that box they keep on their shoulders. And took off, lights flashing and siren on.

I heard more sirens going by, northwards: probably running along Park Avenue.

Then I noticed smoke coming up, somewhere to the east. I headed for the fire. My motivation was more than idle curiosity, or a journalist's instinct. I'd left my car parked in that direction. Right where most of the Loonfoot Falls Fire Department and one of our police cars were double- and triple-parked.

My car was okay. The one two spaces closer to downtown had to be towed. The engine fire was out by the time I got there, and the firefighters were discussing how to get re-inserted in the parade.

They got back in, near the back of the procession. That interruption may have thrown the rest of the parade off: by the time they reached the fairgrounds, there was almost a block between some of the units.

It's good to know that the Fire Department can respond, even if they're tied up in a parade when they're needed.

Daring Derik Dragon Returns?

You've probably already read about the statue that's been proposed for the school. Or maybe Railroad Park. Or the fairgrounds. Or someplace else.

Or Loonfoot Falls may not get its dragon at all. The City Council will talk about it, again, next week.

I hope it's built.

Loonfoot Falls is a bit remarkable for being a Minnesota town without its own oversize sculpture of a crow, otter, prairie chicken, walleye, lumberjack, bear, pike, or muskie. There's even one showing a grasshopper the size of a terrier, shishkabobbed on somebody's pitchfork. And yes: I know. Muskies are a kind of pike.

That punctured grasshopper, I understand, dates back to a gag made up in the fifties: and doesn't have much to do with the nineteenth century grasshopper plague. Which was no joke at all.

I've gotten off track. Back to that dragon statue.

Folks in town have been talking about building another Loonfoot Dragon, ever since Daring Derik Dragon burned down, back in 1986. Derik was made of fiberglass, steel, and cardboard. Quite a lot of cardboard, apparently.

It's been a sore point with some folks here that Frazee rebuilt their turkey statue: but we're still dragonless.

The statue Albert Graff showed the council this week is small enough to fit on a trailer: a design requirement since be on the road from time to time as a high school mascot, or appear in parades.



Mr. Graff assured the council that his Derik wouldn't have a shred of cardboard in him.

It Was Only a Small Fire - - -

The good news is that the Loonfoot Falls Chronicle-Gazette's press is not near the offices in downtown Loonfoor Falls, and that this week's paper was printed and distributed without incident. And, that nobody got hurt.

The bad news is that there was a small fire yesterday in this paper's offices. I was a bit distracted when the alarm went off, and didn't finish posting this week's column. Actually, I'm not even sure that it's been saved. The lights went out just before the alarms started. The network gave a one-minute shutdown warning, and crashed right after that.

Stan Parks tells me that our data should still be there. But he put a bit more emphasis on the word "should" than I like.

I've been told not to say much more about the fire, until the inspectors get through looking over the place. I wouldn't have much to say, anyway: I didn't notice anything before the lights went out, and after that I was concentrating on getting me, a camera, and a flash drive out of the building.

Before I forget it, kudos to the Loonfoot Falls fire department: they had the fire out, for the most part, quite quickly.

Me? I've got the weekend off. Mr. Johnson told us we'd be told before Monday morning, whether we're going back to the offices, or somewhere else.