Car fire halts Flagler Beach parade

A car in the Holiday at the Beach Parade caught fire, halting the annual event on Dec. 4, not far from the Golden Lion, in Flagler Beach.

Fortunately, firefighters were already on the scene — they were in the parade themselves.

Heat from the car fire also temporarily threatened a nearby structure, according to Flagler Beach Fire Chief Bobby Pace.

Joining the Flagler Beach firefighters were others from Flagler County Fire Rescue. Pace said that Stations 11, 92 and Lt. Morgan Rainey led the effort.

“For them to navigate through this crowd and get a knock down on this vehicle the way they did in just moments’ time is just phenomenal,” Pace said. “They did an excellent job. People could have been hurt. It was a lot of hazard and a lot of risk here, and they were on top of it. I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

No one was injured.

Denise Calderwood was in the crowd near the Golden Lion when the car caught fire.

“It was scary,” she recalled. “People didn’t know what was going on, and then you saw the black smoke, and we had to get people out of there, and there was no place for anybody to go.”

Calderwood said she spoke with the owner of the car, a 48-year-old Bentley, and learned that he was a Plantation Bay residents.

— Jake Montgomery contributed.