BELLE FOURCHE—On the morning of Oct. 11, the Belle Fourche Volunteer Fire Department was tending to something other than a fire—a hot grill! For a few hours, anyway, the firefighters traded fire hoses for pancake batter and fed over 400 hungry supporters who turned out to help fill the boot during the department’s annual pancake feed.
The pancake feed is the fire department’s largest fundraising event for the year. “This takes some planning, we have a committee that works on it. The biggest thing is getting all of the ingredients—we have enough manpower, obviously! Everybody chips in and it’s our main fundraiser for the year,” explained Rik Bartels, fire chief.
The Belle Fourche Moose Lodge provided the facilities for the event. Firefighters grilled pancakes and sausage right out back behind the building while other firefighters made up plates of food and served the public. Pancakes with eggs and sausage were on the menu. Breakfast was served from 8 a.m. through 1 p.m. for a free-will offering.
The pancake feed is held annually on the first Sunday following Fire Prevention Week. This year, that ran from October 4 through 10. The event is a community staple that has been going on for so long, no one could reliably provide a start date. Bartels said, “Oh man, a long time!” Don Ward, president of the Belle Fourche Volunteer Fire Department, has been with the department for 33 years and said the pancake feed has been going on for as long as he can remember. “At least 33 years, but probably more like 50 years,” he shared.
Throughout all of the years, the community continues to show up for the firefighters. “The community support is outstanding and it always is—we always have a really good turnout,” said Bartels.
The Volunteer Fire Department currently has 38 firefighters. They have room for 43 on their roster. They are always recruiting. “If you’re interested in becoming a firefighter, let us know. We’re always looking because… we get a little bit of a turnover,” said Bartels. “So if anybody wants to be a volunteer firefighter they can just come into the main building—someone’s there every Wednesday night for sure. Or just get a hold of a firefighter and we can get an application and then you fill that out. We’ll interview you and then go from there.”
The funds raised from the event aren’t earmarked for anything specifically as of yet. “No, not really, but most of the time, it’s PPE like fire shelters or updating wildland gear, bunker gear, just firefighting stuff—you know, and that stuff’s not cheap,” said Bartels.
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