FLORIDA â Florida volunteer firefighters thought they were coming into the station for a typical meeting.
Instead, on Tuesday, they found themselves faced with piles of spaghetti and meatballs â a thank-you gift from a grateful town.
Residents and local businesses pitched in to serve the firefighters dinner, including whoopie pies from Wigwam Western Summit and spaghetti from the Capitol Restaurant in North Adams, according to Deirdre Forde, who organized the evening.
Forde first posted her idea on Facebook, then quickly took her activities behind the scenes to keep the dinner secret from almost the entire department.
Heidi Dugal, principal at Abbott Memorial School, helped pull together the dinner and got students involved, creating a book of notes for firefighters and âsurvival bagsâ with assorted candy.
NORTH ADAMS â Firefighters have contained the junkyard fire in North Adams that sent a black plume of smoke shooting into the sky Tuesday morning.
City residents were asked to stay indoors for several hours as the fire burned a pile of scrapped cars that sat about two stories high at George Apkin & Sons on State Street. About 40 firefighters fought the blaze around the junkyard and railroad tracks.
The cityâs advisory was removed by 4 p.m., as firefighters contained the flames and state agencies reported âno significant air quality risks.â
At a news conference on Tuesday evening, North Adams Fire Chief Brent Lefebvre said he hoped the firefighting would be able to wrap up Wednesday.