Marblehead Fire Department (MFD) hosted its Beat the Heat event at the Judy and Gene Jacobi Community Center Tuesday afternoon, bringing community members together to run and play under water hoses connected to MFD fire trucks in light of the recent heat wave.
MFD Chief Jason Gilliland said these Beat the Heat events happen “once or twice a year, depending on the heat,” as the events are held on an as-needed basis when there are heat waves. He mentioned that, during Tuesday’s event, it was about 105°.
“We’ll see what happens this summer,” he said. “We’ll probably do it more. It’s a good way to keep everybody cool and safe.”
Gilliland added that these events are the “fun part of the job.”
Marbleheader Marina Paro brought her two kids to the Beat the Heat event because “it’s a fun community event to relieve ourselves of the heat of the day with the fire trucks.”
She added that she really enjoyed “running through the waves in the community center parking lot with all these rugrats and getting them together from school. They all miss each other a lot, and it’s a fun way to reunite.”
“We’re grateful for the firefighters for taking the time to do this for our kids,” Paro said.
Marbleheader Suzanne Pantazi said she attended the Beat the Heat event with her family because “we were out at the beach, and it was too hot at the beach, and I saw on Facebook that they were doing this.” This was her first time attending a Beat the Heat event, although she has attended MFD’s Touch A Truck events in the past.
When asked if she felt the Community Center parking lot was colder than the beach, despite being on asphalt, she quickly said “yes.”
“This really helped actually,” Pantazi said. “It even cooled off the air. It’s the perfect day to do it.”
9-year-old Winslow Lane was eager to share how much fun he was having running through the firetruck hoses. Between the two, one fire pumper which was shooting water up into the air and one jack gun which was spraying water from the hose line on the side of the truck, Winslow said he really liked running through the jack gun.
“I like having fun on such a hot day. I’ve never done this before, so it was really fun for me, and I like getting all wet,” he said.
Liv Jacobsen, 11, said she was having fun running around in the water, noting it’s much more fun to run around with water cooling her down than just running around without it in this heat. She thanked the firefighters “for coming out and doing this for all of us.”
Caroline Johnson, 13, attended Beat the Heat for the third year in a row and got to test out her new yellow and pink bathing suit while watching her 3-year-old cousin. She was eager to run around and get out of the house.
“It’s nice that the community is bringing everyone together and trying to keep us cool in the really, really hot weather, and it’s really fun. I think it’s funny because my aunt keeps getting sprayed, and it’s funny to watch,” Caroline said.
