Fire departments from across the state will be coming to Manchester for the State Fire Convention that starts Tuesday.
Manchester firefighter Ed Tibbott is co-chairing this year’s convention and says it will be the fifth time Manchester has hosted the state event. “We have 1,300 some people registered. And I’m thinking we’re right around 100 different departments across the state of Iowa and Wisconsin. We do have at least one department out of Wisconsin coming,” he says.
The State Fire Convention is based at the Delaware County Fairgrounds, which will transform into its own little “town” as the fire departments settle in. “And we try to do a special event. This year we’re doing ours as a ‘Mardi Gras U-S-A’ with the U-S-A being 250 years and with the 9-11 anniversary of that. And then we just have themes,” he says.
They wrap up with the State Fire Convention parade Saturday at 2 p.m. before everyone heads home on Sunday. Tibbott says hosting the State Fire Convention brings a big financial boost to the Manchester Fire Department. “This is our fifth time and we keep stressing to some of these guys that look in our bay. We’ve got at least three vehicles in there that we were able to help purchase through fire conventions. And we have a lot of stuff on our trucks that we bought with fire convention money,” he says.
It is the first time Manchester has hosted the convention since 2019
(By Janelle Tucker, KMCH, Manchester)