Santa Claus made a special appearance in Hyattsville Christmas Eve before delivering presents to the rest of the world.
Despite passing rain showers, volunteer and career firefighters from the station escorted Santa and a few elves throughout the community on Wednesday evening on the HVFD’s holiday-decorated ladder truck, occasionally stopping to pass out candy and holiday cheer.
One special stop was a battered women’s shelter in Hyattsville.
There, firefighters handed out gifts donated by the parents of HVFD volunteers Mark and Mike Murphy. More than a dozen children at the home greeted Santa and his bags of gifts that included clothing, toy fire trucks, stuffed animals and school supplies.
"It’s really an incredible thing, to have our children getting this special visit," one of the mothers said.
Santa talked with the children and asked them what they wanted for Christmas.
"This has been a tough year for most of these women," one of the home’s supervisors said. "This is something that hopefully will give them a jump start to the new year."
This was the first year in what hopefully will be a tradition at the HVFD of going out to spread holiday spirit in the community.
Among the personnel who participated in this event: Vol. Lt. Marshall Davies, Vol. Sgt. Dave J. Iannone, Vol. F/F’s Dave Pfeil, Christin Murphy, Mike Murphy, Mark Murphy, Rick Hudson, Mike Hackley, Vol. Rescue Sgt. John Shaw, and Career Firefighters John Inman, Corey Smedley and Karl Brimmer.
Santa was a little late in getting to the shelter due to a high volume of emergency calls at the HVFD. In just over a 12-hour period on Christmas Eve, the department responded to some 22 fire/rescue incidents.
The department is on target to respond to nearly 2,000 ambulance calls, 1,000 engine company responses, 425 ladder truck calls and 700 heavy rescue responses in 1997.
For more information on the department, events and happenings, visit our web site at http://www.hyattsvillevfd.org/