By Robert Lucke and Chili Feed history by Larry Ophus
This year's Chili Feed looks to be one of the biggest and best ever! This is the 60th Annual Chili Feed and will be held this Friday, October 9th. Tickets for the raffle are a buck. The feed starts at 4pm and features a chili made especially for the occasion by firemen of Big Sandy and the hinterlands.
When you see someone from the IX ranch, thank them as they donated all the hamburger for the feed.
This year, fire chief Larry Ophus supplied "The Mountaineer" with a complete history of the festivities from day one until today. It is one of the most detailed histories of any organization that we have published in the newspaper so a huge thanks to Larry Ophus who said, by the way, "Born in 1955 it is safe to say that I have made every Chili Feed in sixty years. I don't remember some of the first ones as I was too young but I have been to all of them!"
The scheduling of the feed has been at times hard to do as sometimes seeding isn't over when the feed has to be put on but as a rule most Chili Feeds are the first week in October or the last week in September, always a Friday when there is a home football game to watch. This year Big Sandy vs. Sunburst is the game the Chili Feed is built around.
For Ophus, one of the most important events in the making the fire department so state of the art and what it is today was the acquiring of the Montana Power building to be the fire hall. Larry had been eyeing the vacant building and thinking of what a great fire hall that would become. A year and a half later and with plenty of encouragement of his father, and a new friend, Pete Madison who had gone to school in Big Sandy, and armed with a letter from Marla Ray for Mr. Madison saying how important that building would be to the community. Madison, of all things, was an upper level official with Montana Power.
Needless to say after a year and a half, Big Sandy got the building with a total cost of $12.50 which was the cost to transfer the title.
Here is Chief Larry Ophus, in his own words, writing the history of this organization in Big Sandy...
Fire History By Larry Ophus
Fall is in the air and it is Chili Feed time again. We have come a long way since the first Chili Fee on October 12, 1955. It started as an open house on that date and has carried on for the past 60 years. The first Chili Feed they used 83 pounds of beef, 40 dozen buns, and 10 people furnished chili. The net take was $282.11. On October 9, 1958 the menu was chili 25 cents, hamburger 25 cents, pop and coffee 10 cents. They had expenses that year of $124.91 and a net profit of $237.59. In 1959 for the October 19th Chili feed the department had voted to discontinue the rides on fire trucks for the kids. It never mentioned in the minutes whether that actually took place or when rides were reinstated, but since we are still doing the rides today the kids must have won out.
In the 1960 the Chili Feed Kept growing the Gross take was from about $350.00 to around $500.00. On September 19, 1964 the prices of Chili 30 cents, hamburgers 35 cents, pop 15 cents, and coffee 10 cents. They used 100 pounds of hamburger. In 1965 the addition to the fire hall was completed in time for the Chili Feed. On October 18, 1967 they used 100 pounds of hamburger and 500 buns.
The 1970's is when the Chili Feed really started to grow. On October 18, 1972 Chili went to 35 cents, hamburger 50 cents, and pop and coffee 15 cents. October 4, 1974 we added the raffle to the chili fee. In that year we purchased a 1974 Pierce Fire truck for $17,945.00 on Oct 10, 1975 it was decided to raffle two halves of beef rather than a whole beef. October 7, 1977 we had our first Chili Feed in the new building.
In the 1980's the Chili Feed continued to build. On October 5, 1984 we started donating leftover hamburger to the High School Halloween Party. On September 19, 1985 we held the Chili Feed with dance following. In May of 1980 we ordered a Pierce pumper truck for $52,716.00, for delivery in one year. In September of 1985 we ordered a new ambulance for $3,200.00. In May of 1989 we ordered a new Type 6 Fire Truck from Becker Manufacturing for $36,313.00.
The 1990's brought some major changes to the Department. In February we received a grant to replace all of our turnout gear. In June we had the tree planted on the Branding Iron lot, which ended our yearly trek to the Faber ranch to bring in the town Christmas tree for Main Street. In February we ordered new turn-out gear for all our firefighters. In March of 1993 we ordered our second Type 6 fire truck from Wilray Manufacturing for $34,190.00. On October 8th of that year we added "real" onions to the Chili Feed. In 1993 we moved the siren from the water tower to the top of the Centennial Elevator. In February of 1995 we started using Pagers to notify our responders. On October 4, 1995 was the first elementary school poster contest. In October of 1997 we ordered our first modular ambulance manufactured by Horton. Our biggest change came at the end of 1998 when Montana Power donated their old service building to the department, giving us a new home. This was able to become a reality with the help of Pete Madison.
The 2000's brought more changes to our Department; with our new home we were able expand our capabilities. In February of 2002 we purchased our first Rescue Truck for $6,900.00, this truck had two light towers that would light up a complete accident scene adding to the safety of the responders. It also gave us a vehicle that could house our rescue equipment. In June of 2002 we purchased a Suburban to be used as a command vehicle and also an off road ambulance for $14,569.00. In February of 2003 we purchased our Rescue Jaws for $18,351.84. In September we purchased a compressor to fill our SCBA bottles for $17,000.00. In November we partnered with DNRC to receive a fire truck of which we paid for some upgrades costing us $5,000.00 to add to our fleet. In Oct of 2004 we purchased a Thermal Imaging Camera to help with structure fires for $1,929.15. In January of 2005 we ordered our second modular Horton Ambulance costing $101,700.00. In February of 2007 we purchased a set of Rescue Jacks for $5,950.00 and in November of that year we again partnered with DNRC to build a Type 3 truck, we supplied the chassis and they build the flat bed and fire apprentice. Total cost to us was $31,500.00. In 2009 we purchased a 2000 Chevy 2500 gallon water tender for $19,000.00.
October of 2010 brought the Flag Pole outside our fire station and the new siren. In June we purchased our bigger Rescue Truck for $60,000.00. In 2012 we sent our 1980 Piece fire truck to be refurbished costing $17,880.00.
This year we had the Fire Hall rewired so that the entire building will be on a stand by generator in case of an emergency. This upgrade to the wiring cost over $12,000.00 to have done. The town had given us the old generator they had to run the lift station, however when we went to have it installed they said it was too old and not dependable. We decided we would purchase a new 36KW generator for $11,999.00. We are hoping to have it ordered soon and installed as soon as we can.
