Lock Four to host firemen’s convention
NORTH CHARLEROI – With membership dwindling, Lock Four Volunteer Fire Co. lost interest in the 1990s in holding carnivals.
The remaining firefighters decided to “remain positive and hope everything would turn around, and it did,” Lock Four fire Chief Mike Castner said.
“We completely turned it around,” Castner said Monday as the fire department in North Charleroi looked forward to hosting the 2017 Washington County Firemen’s Association Convention this week.
“It’s definitely something very special,” Castner said, adding the convention is being held in conjunction with the fire company’s 115th anniversary.
The association will hold its meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday in the fire company’s social hall at 540 Isabella Ave.
The parade will begin lining up at 3 p.m. Saturday on Middleland and Conrad avenues, and it will start at 5 p.m. A disc jockey, games, rides and food vendors will be located in the hall’s parking lot in advance of a performance at 7 p.m. by Hillbilly Way, a country music band from Dawson, Fayette County.
Castner said Lock Four Sunday will bring back the battle of the barrel, a tug-of-war-type contest using fire hoses and an empty beer barrel suspended on a rope. That will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday in the social hall lot. The last event of the day will be a demonstration by Charleroi Regional police.