"It brings back the old days..." Fire Chief Harry Cooke.

Charlottesville Virginia has a long tradition of selfless firemen serving our community, so when our local volunteer firemen decided to parade their old and carefully maintained 1904 Knott fire pumper, they called on the Bundoran Belgians to make up the hitch. Street-safe and crowd-friendly, these three great horses are quite accustomed to the smoke from the pumper and the noise of the applauding crowd, but they never seem to appreciate their first-place award in the Winchester Firemen's Parade.

Chief Cooke comments: "We have so much confidence in Fred's operation. We have to, as our steam pumper weighs over 7000 pounds and we are in close contact with people, both marching in and watching the parades. We note the pleasure that our crowds seem to enjoy. Smoke flying. Big showy horses. We stole the crowd and we got first place in a parade with 400-500 entries. Our volunter and professional firefighters do it together each year, and we like working as one company. The pumper is the catalyst."

Harry Cooke grew up around work horses himself. As a youngster, he attended Miller School here in Albemarle County and daily worked in the cattle and horse barns before attending classes. He recalls setting box traps in the nearby woods, and catching rabbits to supplement the boys' dinners.

One special day for us was the University of Virginia's celebration of their appreciation of the fire protection provided by our local firemen.

Several hundred firemen and their spouses were honored with private docent-led tours of Jefferson's Rotunda, and the Bundoran Belgians played a part. It was an honor to play a small part!

Our firemen - led by volunteer Chief Harry Cooke and professional Chief Julian Taliaferro - are just terrific, and we really appreciate working with them.