Galena, Kan., held its annual Christmas parade Saturday. Larry and Judy Courtney were grand marshals. Larry owns the C&A Corp. in town, and he and his wife are helping restore an old Marathon gas station along old 66 in town and acquired an old boom truck that was the inspiration to Tow Mater in the hit summer movie about Route 66, “Cars.”
Rod Harsh of Route 66 TV Online reports what happened next:
Around 4:30 pm, and just as the end of the parade was passing throught the center of Galena’s business district, an explosion with a huge cloud of black smoke suddenly appeared at the north end of town, and three of Galena’s fire engines in the parade dropped-off their riders and sped toward the fire. Santa, however, got the ride of his life as he was a lone passenger on the lead truck.
Other fire trucks also responded from nearby Riverton and Baxter Springs, and assisted Galena firefighters extinguish the fire in one of C&A’s large metal workshops.
The Galena Fire Department had earlier participated in the 12 Noon Riverton, and 2 pm. Baxter Springs parades, and were fortunate that they were just a half-mile away from the fire with nearly all of their apparatus and firefighters. The fire was extinguished in about 30 minutes and the structure suffered heavy smoke damage. It may be some time before the cause and damage cost will be known. The C & A Corp. is located one block off Route 66 in North Galena.
Harsh has photos of the parade and fire here. I’ll post more reports about the fire as they become available.