Fire chief says over 6,000 attended Firefighters Freedom Festival

MADISON COUNTY, Tenn. — After one of West Tennessee’s biggest Fourth of July celebrations, crews spent Tuesday cleaning up.

Madison County Fire Chief Eric Turner

Chief Eric Turner with the Madison County Fire Department says that despite the multiple storms they faced Monday, thousands of people made their way to the festival.

Turner says they believe they had between 6,000 and 7,000 people attend this year. He says the crowds were a little slow in making their way out to the festival, but he says families and friends enjoyed all the extra rides this year — and of course the 30-minute fireworks show.

“At the end of the day, everybody wants to see the fireworks,” Chief Turner said. “We put on about a 30-minute show last night nonstop, and I think everybody enjoyed it. But I think the children’s rides, we had more of that this year to try and cut out those lines, and there were still lines for those rides.”

Turner says they have seen a decrease in fires caused by fireworks since the festival started.

Before the fireworks, the festival hosted a letter-writing campaign called “Letters for Soldiers.”

The fire department is still counting exactly how many letters were written, but they believe they surpassed their goal of 2,000.