Parade may have set record

CASSELTON, N.D. (AP) — The southeastern North Dakota town of Casselton may have set a new world record for having the most fire trucks in a parade on Saturday.

Organizers of the Cass County Summerfest parade say they believe 181 fire trucks participated, which would be 22 more than the previous record.

“We shattered it,” said Greg Kempel, who led the record-breaking effort.

Organizers recruited fire trucks towns throughout the Dakotas and Minnesota as far as 400 miles away. And on Friday, when they believed the parade would be two trucks short of the record, some publicity helped attract a few last-minute entries.

“We came up with 25 trucks in less than 24 hours,” said Kempel, who is a Casselton ambulance crew member and winery owner.

The fire trucks were all featured in a special segment of the parade that was designed to break the current Guinness World Record. The town of Oberdiessbach, Switzerland set the previous world record with 159 fire trucks in a parade three years ago.

Reynolds, N.D., Fire Chief Rick Hansen said he’s driven fire trucks through plenty of parades before.

“But not like this,” he said.

Hundreds of rain-soaked spectators cheered on the fire trucks as they passed.

To comply with Guinness rules, every fire truck was photographed and drivers had to sign a registration form. The forms all had to be notarized by Summerfest Chairman Ron Mueller.

Guinness also requires that all of the fire trucks must have been able to put out a fire and each truck had to travel at least two miles in the parade.

The documentation will be sent to Guinness judges by overnight mail on Monday, and organizers hope to have it confirmed as a world record soon.

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On the Net:

http://www.casscountysummerfest .com/

Tags: north dakota, cass county, news, casselton, parade, record, summerfest