Forged by firetruck
Formation of volunteer fire department key moment in history of Addis
Children are still important to the parade. They still serve in the royal court, which is selected by lottery from the names of children in the fire district.
Addis — To many residents of Addis, Jan. 6, 1963, is the most important day in the town’s history. That’s the day the 1928 American LaFrance pumper arrived. The town council leased the 35-year-old firetruck from the town of Plaquemine for $1.
With their very own firetruck, local citizens formed the Addis Volunteer Fire Department. Within weeks, the wives of the volunteer firemen held the first Addis Firemen’s Parade and started an auxiliary.
“We came into a firetruck and almost immediately the fire department formed,” said Jocelyn Gauthreaux, a member of the auxiliary since it was founded.
Addis will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its volunteer fire department Feb. 12 at the annual Addis Firemen’s Parade with festivities to follow at the Addis Museum Park.
The old truck was in pretty bad shape when it arrived in Addis. It needed new fenders and running boards and a paint job. The 50 or so firemen worked for months under the guidance of Leon Caldwell, the town’s first fire chief, to restore the truck, which they lovingly called “our antique.”
“When we first formed, they erected a siren right outside the station,” said Gene Bertrand, who joined the volunteer fire department when it was organized. “Chuck would operate it from the barroom,” he said.
Chuck Tuminello was the chief of police and operator of Chuck’s Lounge. To report a fire, you would call Chuck’s. Tuminello would activate the siren that sounded all over town. He would then go to the old fire station on Harris Street and scribble the location of the fire on a blackboard. That’s how the firemen knew where to go.
“Later on at some point, we started having radios,” Bertrand said. “All active firemen had a radio at their house or carried one with them.”
They still use radios and pagers and are notified of fires by the West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office, which receives the calls.
Bertrand is no longer active in the fire department, but he is a member and can attend the meetings on the last Tuesday of every month.
“We had training at least once a month, sometimes twice a month,” he said. “At the beginning, our training was fairly crude. We mainly trained ourselves.”
The firefighters respond to all sorts of fires as well as accidents along La. 1. “When I was active, we had mostly in-town house fires,” Bertrand said.
The biggest fire he recalls was an explosion and chemical fire at Dow Chemical. The fire departments of Plaquemine and Port Allen also responded, but the Addis Volunteer Fire Department got there first.
The Firemen’s Parade was the idea of Donna Mae Songy Fitzgerald, who wrote down her thoughts about it in 2008. It started in 1963 with children pulling their decorated wagons.
The Brusly School had a Carnival with a king, queen and court, so Fitzgerald decided to have a children’s court with a king and queen of the parade.
“I decorated two little red wagons,” wrote Fitzgerald. “We used a farmer’s hay wagon for the king, queen and court.”
Cecil Breaux, who had lived in New Orleans and knew about Mardi Gras, advised Fitzgerald to keep the cost of the parade down by decorating with palmetto, moss and crepe paper.
“My mother-in-law, Mamie Fitzgerald, Lucy Breaux and I went to Bayou Pigeon to gather moss and palmetto,” Fitzgerald wrote. Cecil Breaux built a frame for the truck.
“We did not get permission from anyone to have a parade,” Fitzgerald wrote. “Addis did not have a police car, so I asked my dad, Dennis Songy, chief of police in Plaquemine, to come to Addis to direct the parade.”
Lawrence Gassie opened his Esso service station and let the auxiliary sell cakes, cookies and candy during the parade. Proceeds benefited the firefighters.
These days, the floats are big. The parade has graduated from decorated children’s wagons. Even so, children are still important to the parade.
They still serve in the royal court, which is selected by lottery from the names of children in the fire district. The king and queen, however, must be a child or grandchild of an auxiliary member or a firefighter. Traditionally the king and queen are not announced until the day of the parade. But word gets out.
“It’s the worst kept secret in Addis,” said Renee Leveron, a member of the auxiliary.