Fergus Falls firefighters to host annual pancake feed Sunday

Pancakes will be on the griddle Sunday at the Fergus Falls Fire Station, 325 E. Washington Ave., as the Fergus Falls Firefighters Association holds its annual breakfast fundraiser from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The freewill donations collected during the feed will go toward specialized safety and rescue equipment and fire prevention education in Fergus Falls. That support reaches well beyond the city limits: the Fergus Falls Fire Department serves a 144-square-mile area that includes the City of Fergus Falls, Aurdal Township, Buse Township, Fergus Falls Township and Orwell Township.

For a county seat with an estimated 2024 population of 14,258, the breakfast has become a familiar civic stop as much as a fundraiser. The Sunday schedule gives families, retirees and shift workers a chance to come through the station without needing to plan around a long event or a formal meeting, and the menu has been built around that easygoing format before. In 2024, the association’s breakfast fundraiser at the same station included sausage links, coffee, milk, juice and a gluten-free option.

The event also reflects how much the fire department has become woven into the city’s identity. Fergus Falls’ fire history dates to 1873, and the department marked its 150th year of service in 2023. The original equipment was spare and basic by modern standards, with six ladders, 18 buckets, two axes and two pike poles. Fred W. Burnham became the city’s first fire chief in 1882.

The contrast between then and now is stark. A 2021 fire engine cost about $562,000, a figure that shows how expensive modern fire protection has become compared with the department’s early years, when firefighters were paid per call at $1 for the first hour and 50 cents an hour after that in 1892. Today’s fundraiser helps cover the practical needs that keep a busy local department ready for emergencies, training and prevention work across city neighborhoods and nearby townships.

Sunday’s pancake feed is part breakfast and part reminder that public safety in Fergus Falls depends on more than alarms and response calls. It depends on steady local backing, and on traditions like the one that brings residents to 325 E. Washington Ave. each spring.