Firefighters plan day of games for centennial

SOUTHWEST HARBOR – Anyone attending the Fireman’s Muster today should plan on having a good time, Fire Chief Sam Chisholm said Friday.

And getting a little bit wet.

“It’s going to be a hot day, so everybody wants to get wet,” he said. “The guy on the nozzle, which is usually me, tends to pick the hose up and turn it on the crowd. It just kind of slips. I can’t help it.”

The muster, the first in the town since 1983, is being held to celebrate Southwest Harbor’s centennial. The daylong event will start with an 11 a.m. parade leaving from the Southwest Food Mart and heading to Pemetic Elementary School.

Antique firetrucks and other firefighting apparatus from all over the state will be featured, according to the chief. Southwest Harbor’s contribution to the parade of equipment from a bygone era is a circa-1880 hand pump.

“It’s in hard shape, but we have it,” he said.

After the parade, the games begin. Chisholm described the muster’s scheduled games as competitions involving firefighting skills. Games include ladder climbing, bucket brigade races and fire hose assembly drills. Battles to win the games will be hard-fought by teams from the Fire Department, the Police Department and Acadia National Park rangers. Two teams from the Harbor House Community Service Center also plan to participate, under the monikers “Old Timers” and “Old Farts,” Chisholm said.

“I’m excited about the non-fire department teams coming to play,” the chief said. “There’s events for kids, events for old-timers and events for everybody in between.”

A chili cook-off also is scheduled to take place from noon to 1:30 p.m. today on the Pemetic Green.