Santa Claus, firefighters to hold tours from safe distance in Fire districts 4, 9 and Spokane Valley
Several local fire departments and districts typically send Santa floats into the neighborhoods they serve to visit with children and hand out candy canes every year, but this year a new, social distant COVID-19 restriction compliant Santa is making his debut.
Spokane County Fire Districts 4 and 9, which are located north of Spokane and Spokane Valley city limits, will have modified Santa tours this year. The Spokane Valley Fire Department Santa will also be out. However, Spokane County Fire District 8 has decided not to do the annual tradition this year.
The effort to bring Santa to the neighborhoods involves up to 15 volunteers a night and that simply wasn’t feasible in a department that only has 40 firefighters, said District 8 IAFF Local 3711 president Jay Wilkins, the training division chief for the district. It would potentially expose most of the department to COVID-19 if anyone was unknowingly sick.
“We just can’t take that risk,” Wilkins said. “We have to keep the fire trucks on the street. We just didn’t want to become our own superspreader event.”
Wilkins said the district also didn’t want to just have Santa driving by, unable to stop.
“At the end of the day we thought it was better to cancel it rather than lowering expectations,” he said.
Canceling the event was a hard decision, because it’s an event that the firefighters and the public look forward to, Wilkins said.
“Honestly, it is our No. 1 event of the year,” he said. “Folks get to interact with us in a nonemergency.”
In Spokane County Fire District 4, only the stations in Deer Park and Colbert are doing Santa neighborhood visits this year, said Capt. John Howerton. However, there won’t be any direct contact between Santa and the public.
“We’re trying to be compliant with state regulations,” Howerton said.
Howerton said he’s not sure how long the annual Santa visits have been going on. They were already established tradition when he started working in the department 24 years ago.
“We just feel it’s really important to get Santa out there,” he said. “So many things have been canceled.”
Though Santa will drive through the neighborhoods, Howerton said he knows that the public will miss being able to talk to Santa and have kids sit on his lap. “People plan their block parties around them,” he said. “Once they get the date, they start planning. They get their barbecue out there.”
Having Santa drive though was the best option available, Howerton said. “We know this isn’t going to make everybody happy, but we thought it was important to get Santa out there.”
Santa came early to District 4 and is almost done with his routes. He’ll visit the area east of U.S. Highway 2 and south of Lane Park Road on Friday and east of Highway 2 and north of Lane Park Road on Saturday.
Spokane County Fire District 9 Division Chief Chris Hamp said the district Santa won’t be having any contact with the public. The district thought it was important to maintain the tradition as best they could, she said.
“Our goal is to get through as many neighborhoods as possible and bring a sense of normalcy in not-normal times,” she said.
There will be a few volunteers with Santa to hand out candy canes and the department’s free calendar.
“Our main thing is to get folks to smile, for a little bit, anyway,” she said. “It’s important for us to keep that contact.”
The time of District 9’s Santa visits varies, but the jolly guy will usually begin at 5 or 6 p.m. The dates are as follows: Dec. 10, Brentwood; Dec. 11, Fairwood and Stone Horse; Dec. 12, Morgan Acres; Dec. 15, South Linwood; Dec. 16, North Linwood; Dec. 17, Seven Mile and Nine Mile areas; Dec. 18, Frasier Estates, eastern Northwood, Falcon Ridge, Prairie Breeze, Granger Terrace, Nine Mile area; Dec. 19, Jesse’s Bluff, Northview Estates and Judkins, Forker and Lincoln Roads. There will be live updates and more detailed information on Santa’s route on the district’s Facebook page.
Spokane Valley Fire Department firefighters in IAFF Local 876 have been running a Santa float every year since 1978. This year is no different, said Firefighter Scott Niebuhr. It was important for the firefighters, who volunteer to run the float on their days off, to bring a sense of normalcy to kids in their neighborhood, Niebuhr said. “It’s one of our ways of giving back,” he said.
There will not be any contact between Santa and the public. “Normally we’d be able to get out and take pictures with kids,” he said. “This year it’s just us driving by and waving.”
For the past several years Santa’s float has been a converted bread truck, but that truck will be retired after this year, Niebuhr said. The union members have saved up money to buy Santa a new sleigh for next year.
Santa’s routes and tour nights are still being determined, but updates and live tracking are available on the IAFF Local 876 Facebook page.
“Each year we have open sign-up,” he said. “I would expect a few more dates to pop up.”
The tours will be from 6 to 8 p.m. The current schedule is as follows: Dec. 10, Flora Road to Henry Road, between Sprague and 16th avenues; Dec. 11, Sullivan to Flora roads, between Mission and 32nd avenues; Dec. 16, Trentwood area; Dec. 18, Evergreen to Sullivan roads, between Sprague and 32nd avenues; Dec. 21, North Ponderosa and Chester areas; Dec. 23, Dishman-Mica to Pines roads, between Sprague and 16th avenues.
—
Nina Culver can be reached at nculver47@gmail.com