Fires, beware! As the 18th annual Shartlesville Fire Company Block Party and Parade was held on July 22, fire companies from across the county gathered for a celebration in downtown Shartlesville.
The main attraction at the Shartlesville Fire Company was the block party itself, complete with all party necessities. Accompanied with delicious smelling food, and a town’s population, this was surely a wonderful way to not only celebrate the fire companies all across Berks, but thank them for their dedication.
What fireman’s block party would be complete without a lights and sirens parade? The highlight of this event was certainly the highly anticipated parade. Despite the rain, excited citizens line the streets of Shartlesville to witness quite possibly the loudest parade to date. A perk of having Berks’ fire companies congregate is of course, the fire trucks. Turning on their flashing lights and loud sirens, fire companies from all across Berks parade around Shartlesville. What I expected to only be fire trucks, turned out to be much more. In the parade there were other emergency vehicles who, like the big red trucks, had their lights on as well. Beginning in town, the vehicles loop around from the church to the former Upper Bern elementary it was hard to miss this flashy parade.
Beginning in 1999, the fireman’s block party has since grown to engulf the main road of Shartlesville. When arriving at the block party, I drove through town seeing a large quantity of people gathered at the actual fire company, with a few stragglers outside of their homes. Assuming that was all there was to it, I turned the corner planning to park at the Shartlesville Grange. What I thought would be a quiet and convenient place to park turned out to be a hub of emergency workers, small gangs of friends, and the other half of town that was not at the fire company itself. The playground was full of young children, and the street was packed with people. All of the fire trucks and emergency vehicles were lined in the field and I was in awe at the sheer size of this event. With a large array of food, entertainment, and of course the parade, it is hard to miss this small-town annual celebration.
Despite there being a parade, party, and packed small town, the real charm to this party was the community. Whether they were elderly couples patiently waiting for the parade to begin or groups of teenagers aimlessly wandering the party, it is always comforting to see a community event have such an impressive impact. Miniscule in comparison to Hamburg’s Hamburger Festival, seeing a town gather in celebration for the local fire companies is what Berks county is truly about. An intimate commemoration with neighbors, friends, and family is truly something to party about.
