Falls Twp. Fire Dept. hosts Father’s Day chicken BBQ

ZANESVILLE, Ohio — A tradition over 40-years old years old continued Sunday in Falls Township.

The Falls Township Fire Department held their annual Father’s Day Chicken BBQ Sunday morning. The event which started in 1964 serves approximately 1,700 chicken dinners to community members– and the volunteers start preparing bright and early.

“The morning started around 3:30 a.m.– that’s what time we put the charcoal in the barbecue pit, light it off. First batch of chickens went on just a little bit after 5 o’clock. We start serving at 11, but 10:30 we started having people come in. We have about 165, 185 dinners left so we’ve had a busy morning,” explained Falls Twp. Fire Chief Brady Johnson.

Johnson says that they have the capacity to cook 25 chicken halves on one rack, and can fit 16 racks on their fire pit– in total cooking about 400 chicken halves at a time.

The dinner cost $9 and included a chicken halve, coleslaw, apple sauce, potato chips, and a dinner roll.

Community members were able to dine-in or carry-out their meal at the Dillon Falls Rd. location, while a drive-thru was set up at the department’s Richey Rd. location so diners didn’t even have to get out of their car.

Johnson adds that the event is a good opportunity for community members to see what the station has to offer, and to teach kids about fire safety and prevention.

“We love for the community to be able to come out and see what we have. We have fire trucks on display, all the compartments are open. Adults ask questions, kids love to climb on the fire trucks. It gives everyone a great opportunity to see what we have and throw a little bit of prevention into it; make sure the kids know about fire safety.”

The funds raised by Sunday’s barbecue will go to the station’s general funds, a portion of which will go to their Station 302 expansion on Richey Rd.