No water balloons are being allowed at this year’s Pitt Meadows Day parade.
That is the message that the City of Pitt Meadows and the Pitt Meadows Fire and Rescue Service want to get out before the annual event this weekend.
The water fight is a central highlight of the parade, which starts at 11:00 a.m. and travels along Hammond Road before turning north along Harris Road to the park on Saturday.
In the past, children and adults have lined the streets with buckets of water balloons and water guns, waiting in anticipation.
The water balloons, however, are causing some hazards, said Rebecca Vaughan, with the City of Pitt Meadows.
“There have been reports of people throwing water balloons from the Keystone condo building on Harris Road. Which when you are throwing a pound of water at somebody from a height, it’s a bit dangerous,” said Vaughan, adding that it’s not just children throwing them, but adults and teenagers, as well.
“And when you’ve got that kind of force behind a water balloon, it’s not really just a fun water fight anymore,” she said.
Pitt Meadows Asst. Fire Chief Brad Perrie echoes Vaughan’s concerns.
“We’ve had people in the past who came out to watch the parade and someone throws a water balloon at one of our firefighters and they miss and it hits a bystander,” said Perrie.
“We’ve had some members get sunglasses broken and their helmets knocked off, things like that,” Perrie added, especially when the balloons are tossed down from the apartment buildings.
“You get a half a pound of water coming down from three stories, that’s got a big impact,” he said.
In addition to the safety hazard, Perrie says, water balloons get into the storm sewers and end up in environmental habitat.
“And they don’t biodegrade. They get into our storm sewer, which goes out into the Fraser and becomes a fish problem and a habitat problem,” he said.
Another concern for Perrie are children who run along the parade route in front of the moving vehicles. Perrie wants to encourage parents to keep track of their children.
“When the truck goes by definitely engage from a safe distance. But don’t let your kids run for three blocks after the parade,” he warned.
This year the firefighters are just going to arm themselves with water guns and they’ve been instructed to stay on the parade route.
“We want everyone to have fun but we want it to be safe fun,” said Perrie.