Garrison Volunteer Fire Department creates haunted house to raise funds for equipment

NACOGDOCHES, Texas (KTRE) -The Garrison Volunteer Fire Department puts on an annual haunted house to raise money for their department but also to bring a thrill to the community.

The fire department has put on a haunted house for the community for the last five years. Assistant Fire Chief Grant Wheeler says they capitalize on people’s fears and put it inside the haunted house.

“We have a little bit of everything, we do run a theme most of the time. With that theme we don’t always stay on target on each and every room. We kind of hit a couple of rooms within that theme, that way it will flow from year to year,” Wheeler said.

The haunted house takes place inside an old, abandoned nursing home behind the fire station. The fire department in previous years used the building for the attraction only, but they now own the building. Fire Chief Ricky Colle says this is their biggest fundraiser every year.

“We were doing barbeques making 6, 7 thousand dollars a year and now were doing a haunted house making profit 30 thousand dollars,” Colle said.

All the money made goes back into the department to buy equipment. The haunted house is completely done and put on by volunteers in the community as well as the firefighters. One of the design masterminds behind the haunted house is Lisa Heflin. She says they pull a lot of inspiration from different horror movies.

“We try to change our rooms, not all of them every year but we do like three and change it up to give it something different,” Heflin said.

Secretary for the fire department Jade Wheeler created her room based off of a popular horror film.

“I took the aspects of the movie that most people would be fearful about, which was creating different atmospheres, lighting, props and different things like that,” Wheeler said.

Tickets are 10 dollars for adults and $5 for kids under 10. The haunted house is open weeknights from 7 to 10 and weekends from 7 until midnight. They will be open until Halloween.

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