The camaraderie between the Woodland Hills (WH) and Spanish Fork (SF) Volunteer fire departments continues to build. The two departments over the years have been a solid, united front in the terms of helping each other and being there when the other department needs their assistance.

Along with their professionalism and success in performing their challenging tasks, comes a bond which overflows into the realm of a little mischievousness...when no one is looking. The latest attempt by the WH firefighters to pull a prank on the (SF) firefighters came about recently when WH Fire Chief Dorel Kynaston and his wife Chris were traveling through Spanish Fork and noticed all the clever scarecrow figurines lining both sides of the street; their minds traveled along the same mischievous path.

They thought it would be kind of funny to put a scarecrow in front of the (SF) Fire Station. They shared their idea with their contemporaries. It became a real undercover venture into just what it would look like and how they would accomplish putting it up in front of the (SF) Fire Station without being seen.

It was decided to playfully stage two firefighter scarecrows under a tree trying to rescue a cat. The significance of this is that only recently such an incident did happen in SF. After many hours of joyful undercover work, the figures were all ready to be installed in front of their contemporary's fire station. Under the cover of darkness, the WH "finest" converged in front of the SF Fire Station and masterfully erected their scene depicting two firefighters wearing SF firefighter clothing, climbing a shaky ladder, looking up into the tree to figure just how they would rescue the poor furry critter. Ironically, while the sneaky joke was being played, a couple of SF firemen happened by and saw what was going on. They thought it was hilarious and went along with the joke.

A few days later someone added a long pink boa around one of the figures.

It just so happens that this took place just a few days before the judging of scarecrow scenes by the SF Chamber of Commerce. What started out as a joke, ended up with the scene taking first place in the business division judging. Chief Kynaston was amazed when he was notified that their panorama took a prize in the competition, which they inadvertently had entered only as a joke on their best friends.

Late Thursday evening, Cary Hanks, who is a member of the SF Chamber and president elect for 2010, appeared at the WH Fire Station to present a traveling trophy and a check to the WH firefighters for winning first place in a specific category. Ironically, when the WH firefighters went to SF to pick up their dummies and accompanying paraphernalia, they found that the toy three-foot-high fire truck, the scarecrow, and all parts of the scene had disappeared. Upon confronting their SF contemporaries about its location, they all feigned complete innocence. So, the battle of the jokesters continues.