By Brandon Shields
Managing editor
The Madison County Fire Department announced Thursday morning that the previously-canceled Firefighters Freedom Festival is back on.
The department began putting the July 4 celebration on in 2013 and has put one on each year since then except 2020.
The MCFD announced on March 21 that the event would have to be canceled because of the rise in fireworks prices, citing prices for a show they typically put on going from $20,000 to $45,000.
“We made that announcement, and almost immediately, we began to get calls from the community asking if they could help out,” said Chief Eric Turner, adding that it was both individual people and companies asking to help.
One of the first companies that signed up was Hitachi Energy, who has a facility in Alamo.
“Hitachi Energy Alamo is proud to lead the way in bringing the Firefighters Freedom Festival back for its 11th year,” said Julia Ewoldt Stooksberry, who is the community engagement manager for Hitachi. “We not only believe in a safe workplace, but also a safe community. As we know, this event keeps both the community and first responders safe by providing a free professional fireworks show to the public. We cannot wait to join everyone at this year’s event!”
Turner said keeping the community safe is the reason the festival even began.
“We wanted to provide the community here a place to watch fireworks, because we were getting a lot of calls for fires started by people shooting fireworks off,” Turner said. “And we’ve gotten fewer calls each year we’ve done this than we were getting when we weren’t putting this show on.”
Turner said the three weeks between announcements weren’t enough time to really affect the planning of this year’s event, so everyone at MCFD expects this year to be similar to any other.
He added that funds have almost been fully raised to fund this year’s event, and then next year, they’ll begin trying to get the 2025 show funded.
Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news
