[print-me]The Annual Fruitland Fire Fair was held on Memorial Saturday May 28th 2016 and was open to the public from 10am to 4pm.
The weather was sunning and nice. Not too hot and not too cool. The Fruitland wind came up about 11’ish and a small micro-burst sent vendor tents rolling. All in all however over 220 people came to the fair this year and by the looks on their faces, had a wonderful time.
We had some very big door prizes that were given away between 3:30pm and 4:00 which had many of the fair attendees hanging around all day as you must be present to win.
The crowds favorite food vendors who participated for their second year were; Darrin Caldwell with his Papa Murphy’s Pizza Wagon from Heber City, Utah who had cooked pizza by the slice and pie, with drinks and candy as well as take and bake pizza’s to go and Todd Gillespie’s Hideout Steak House from Duchesne, Utah was also there serving pulled pork, chicken or beef sandwiches with their signature pork-n-beans and coleslaw plus a variety of soda pops. The lines moved fast as fair attendee got great lunches and snacks.
Jim Davis a long time member of the Fire Council worked tirelessly over the past 3 months obtaining over 60 product donations from so many wonderful vendors from Duchesne to Park City who were unable to attend in person, and other council members brought even more donations for door prizes.
Jim was also the Master of Ceremonies and was kept busy giving away a door prize every 2-3 minutes for the entire 6 hours of the fair as well as narrating demonstrations of fire fighting tools, apparatus and equipment.
The last prizes to be given away of the day (and you have to be present to win) were: A weekend stay at the West Gate in Park City, two $80 72 hour food kits, an $80 fishing tool kit and the last prize of the day was a $450 pair of VORTEX binoculars donated by VORTEX to our council member Jerry Nelson, a manager at Stewarts Sporting goods in Roosevelt, Utah.
There were many other wonderful vendors in attendance with their booths who all gave many wonderful door prizes too, like; Intermountain Farmers (IFA) from Roosevelt, Chris Wardle’s www.KauaiGirlSoap.com with Handmade Hawaiian Couture soap products and R/C Tire & Lube from Duchesne, Utah.
Smokey Bear was there and personally met all of the children (who were willing) and all of the kids got tons of Swag like; Jr. Fireman Hats, Rulers, safety whistles, wrist bands, Frisbee’s and more and the courtyard was full of kids flying their Frisbee’s, blowing their safety whistles, eating and playing in the sun.
Utah Highway Patrol was represented by trooper Dale Talbot and he was a big attraction to many attendees, especially the kids who got to turn on his patrol car lights and siren. They all had a great time with the trooper.
For the adults there was a great selection of fire preparedness pamphlets available, demonstrations of fire equipment, fire fighting procedures, defensible space dioramas, video presentations, a digital fire extinguisher “put out the flames” game. Nathan Robinson (Duchesne Fire Warden and the Fruitland Volunteer Fire Chief) awed the crowd by demonstrating the remote controlled, (no driver on the machine) track driven chipper/shredder which is about 9 feet tall and as big as the family car. It is probably the biggest remote controlled vehicle most of the attendees have ever seen in person. There were also fire fighters there answering questions and helping people sign up for FREE assistance from Ken Ludwig’s department to help them tune-up their defensible space with free tree pruning and clean up* fire hazards around their homes. Jim Davis told the crowd that these crews come in and gently prune trees around your buildings and homes and then shred the pruning’s and clean the entire area up and spread the wood chips around until it looks like professional gardener’s have been there. The best part is they do it at no charge to the property/home owner*.
Some people shared their personal experience of coming to a past Fire Fair, learning about protecting their property, personal assets, family and pets and then going back to their cabins, homes or property and applying what they learned over the summer and many even welcomed the Fire Prevention crews in who did a majority of the work for free.
Some attendees exclaimed how much more beautiful their property was after it was cleaned up of all of the static fire fuel (burnable wood and grass just laying around).
So where does the money come from to pay for this assistance to property owners?
It’s paid for by grants and monies that come from the State and Federal Government which come from In-Kind hours donated by people in the community. Federal monetary compensation comes from NFPA and Firewise back to the State to be used in the region for fire prevention. (In-kind hours are any hours put in by community members and property/home owners and their families, friends and even employees, cleaning and protecting the community, their properties, or even for attending the Fire Fair. The hours are reported to the fire council and turned into the State who files them with the Federal Gov). Your volunteer time really does matter: The value of volunteer hours for 2015 was $23.56/hr**
Some of the firemen and women brought out their bunkers (personal fire fighting equipment and uniforms) and taught attendees how it is all put on, THEN they let some willing tough guys in the crowd stand in front of everyone and hold all of the gear piece by piece (all 60+ pounds) just to see what a firefighter puts on to stay safe while fighting a fire.
The crowd also learned that the firefighter has to qualify each year by demonstrating that he or she can put their complete “Bunker” on in 60 seconds… WOW! Putting 60+ pounds of gear on in 1 minute…
And when the Fire Fair was done, when the booths were taken down, the food trucks had left, the fire trucks and ambulances were safely tucked back into their warm firehouse bays and everyone had gone home, the fire fair had a 37.5% greater attendance over the year previous (which was 277% higher than any other year in the history of this fire fair).
We would REALLY like to thank the following sponsors for participating and donating to make the Fire Fair a tremendous success. Please shop at these sponsors and thank them for their support (listed in no particular order):
- Steve Evans Owner and all of the wonderful crew at
KVEL / KLCY Radio, Vernal, Utah - Papa Murphy’s Pizza, Heber City, Utah
- The Hideout Steakhouse, Duchesne, Utah
- R/C Tire & Lube, Duchesne, Utah
- Intermountain Farmers Association, Roosevelt, Utah
- KauaiGirlSoap.com, Duchesne County, Utah
- Kings, Heber City, Utah
- Smiths, Heber City, Utah
- Reams, Heber City, Utah
- Latimer’s Do It Best Hardware, Heber City, Utah
- Hub Cafe, Heber City, Utah
- Country Gardens, Heber City, Utah
- Dickeys BBQ Pit, Heber City, Utah
- Dairy Keen, Heber City, Utah
- Timberline, Heber City, Utah
- K&K Sanitation, Roosevelt, Utah (garbage cans)
- Chicks Cafe, Heber City, Utah
- Big “G”, Fruitland, Utah
- Als Foodtown, Duchesne, Utah
- Westgate Park City Resort, Park City, Utah
- High Desert Nursery,
- Walmart, Heber City, Utah
- Plaza Power Sports, Heber City, Utah
- Sears, Heber City, Utah
- Sportsman’s Warehouse, Heber City, Utah
- Kohls Hardware, Duchesne, Utah
- Arrow Oilfield & Sanitation, Duchesne, Utah (porta potty)
- Day’s Market, Heber City, Utah
- Tractor Supply, Heber City, Utah
- Fish Heads Fly Shop, Heber City, Utah
- Stewart’s Marketplace, Sporting Goods & Hardware, Roosevelt, Utah
- Jerry & Debbie Nelson donated a NIB $450 pair of Vortex Optics Binoculars
*No money is charged for this service. However, personal assistance of and with the crew(s) or other in-kind services may be required of those able.
** Data from The Value of Volunteer Time