BAILEY, Miss. (Queen City Newsfeed) – The 16th annual Bailey Haunted Firehouse kicked off last weekend.
The local haunt features are array ghoulish scenes for vistors to try and survive.. if they dare!
Robby McClure is the Assistant Fire Chief for the Bailey Volunteer Fire Department.
He said this is their one and only fundraiser for the year.
“Volunteer Fire Departments all over the world, United States particularly, they have to survive by having fundraisers. Whether they’re doing catfish plates or boston butts or whatever it is that they may do, they have to do something to pay the bills. We do get some funding from the state, but it’s typically not enough, and it can only be utilized for certain things,” said McClure.
This may be the 16th annual event, but McClure said the idea dates back even further than that— when a group of volunteer firemen were having a chat about the upcoming holiday.
“Halloween’s coming up, and you really can’t trick our treat like you use to anymore. So, we wanted somewhere in the community for the kids to have that was safe and controlled, so it started off with maybe a little baled of hay busted in a fire bay somewhere with maybe somebody laying in a coffin holding a pumpkin full of candy, and that was pretty much it. Through the year it just grew and it got bigger, and it turned into something that was just a blast. It’s a lot of fun. Then, you throw in the ‘hey, we could turn this into a great fundraiser,’ and then here we are,” said McClure.
McClure said it takes 55 to 60 volunteers every night just to open the doors.
“A lot of the people that come up here are friends with or have some kind of connection to the fire department, but a lot of our actors are just people that are like-minded and Halloween’s kind of their thing, and they come up and they say ‘hey we want to help you guys, we want to be a part of it,’ and we welcome them aboard,” said McClure.
McClure also said safety is a top priority for the department.
“We try to keep this as family oriented as possible, and we vet every single person that’s on this property, and it gives the community, and our community at this point has reached out to multiple states, you know, but people can come and they know they can come up here and have a good time without drama,” stated McClure.
The Bailey Haunted Fire House is open every Friday and Saturday in October, as well as November 1st and 2nd.
All ages are welcome.
“Where else can you go and pay good money to be scared,” asked McClure.
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