The history of fire departments having water wars is not well documented, but the rumor floating around the crowd at Miesville’s first annual ‘Water Wars’ event on Saturday was that fire departments have been doing these for decades. Some even joked that it likely started one evening in Wisconsin after some consumption of adult beverages, but neither can be confirmed. The bottom line of the event was it was pure entertainment.
To help you understand how this event worked, you need to think tug of war. Instead of pulling a rope, contestants push an empty keg using water from a fire hose. The teams in this instance were made up of two people. The lead person aims the hose while the back person supports their partner with additional leverage, helped with aiming or moving the hose.
The keg is suspended from a cable that was strung between two dump trucks with their beds raised. A swivel and pulley are mounted to the keg so it can spin freely on three different axes. The pressure from the hoses often rolled the keg over the top of the cable and certainly spun it around horizontally. The major piece was the pulley moving along the cable to the losing team’s end.
The heats were set up with a one-minute time limit and it was a best of three series. If the keg did not make it fully to one end by the time the horn sounded, the win was awarded to the team that had it out of their end at the sound of the horn.
Thankfully it was a nice warm Saturday because the mist from the water being sprayed easily travelled to the crowd to cool them off. Kids and adults alike were having a great time enjoying the overspray. The Miesville Mudhens also opened concessions for the event.
Participants were required to wear their proper firefighting boots, pants and helmets, anything beyond that was up to the competitor. The big reason for the pants was safety with the pressure firehoses put out, it can easily take a grown man or two down to the pavement causing injury if they are not properly dressed.
Eight teams participated in the double elimination tournament. Farmington, Woodbury, Milltown, WI and a couple from Miesville. There was also a team made up of two fire departments, Kurt Angerman of Miesville made a life-saving donation of a kidney to Farmington’s Steven Endres and they teamed up for the tournament.
The winners of the tournament were Keith and Kalvin Zygowicz from Milltown, WI. Keith said he had over two decades of experience participating in water wars and his son was experiencing it for the first time. Woodbury Fire Department’s Austin Bau and Harrison Oney took second place, and third place went to Miesville’s Steve Meyers and Tom Ryan.
After the bracket was complete, fans were able to experience using the firehose with supervision from the participants.