By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – After taking their beating on the football field last month, the St. John the Baptist Parish firefighters held up their end of the deal and broke out hoses to wash a pair of police units for the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office.

During the Sheriff’s Office’s annual Christmas party a trio of firefighters, with the help of a few inmate work crew members, scrubbed down the vehicles under the watchful eye of laughing deputies.

“I knew this day was coming, so I made sure to keep my unit nice and dirty for them,” said Lt. Brian Bertrand, whose K9 unit was washed Wednesday. “I’d ask them to clean inside and out, but in my unit that is an all day affair.”

The car washing was the payoff for a bet made between the deputies and the firefighters during their first annual “Guns and Hoses” flag football game early last month. The event, the first of many now planned for the future, was a fundraiser for the Sheriff’s Office’s annual Christmas toy drive.

“It was all great fun, and it is a real shame we couldn’t pull it out,” said St. John fireman Michael Heath. “Next time, we are going to make sure they are washing our largest rescue truck.”