Siren Songs

Siren Songs

BY GEORGE SOLTES

PHOTOS COURTESY BIFD

The holiday season on Bainbridge comes with its own special traditions: the tree lighting at Town Square, cozy evenings by the fire during power outages, dustings of snow that send Teslas around the island into ditches and, of course, a roving musical firetruck.

The Bainbridge Island Fire Department’s music truck has been taking holiday cheer to the streets for more than 50 years, said BIFD Community Risk Reduction Coordinator Janine Courtemanche.

The firetruck, decorated with lights, banners and tinsel and outfitted with a speaker system, cruises through island neighborhoods playing holiday tunes during the 12 days leading up to Christmas. Wherever revelers gather, the crew hops off to visit and pass out candy canes.

Music truck duty is a favorite assignment among both career and volunteer firefighters, said Courtemanche. “Although not a charity event, we receive many treats and donations enroute,” she added. “The treats are brought back to the station and shared with the crew, monetary gifts are added to the Bainbridge Island Volunteer Firefighters Association fund (which in turn provides goods and services to our community) and any toys are donated to either Children’s Hospital or Toys for Tots.”

To find out when a festive first responder will be coming down your street, visit bifd.org, where the tour schedule and map will be revealed during the first week of December and where, for those wanting to pinpoint the position of the sirened sleigh at any moment, a real-time tracking app is available.