On Centre: Bald Eagle Area

Scare up some thrills at Citizen's firehouse

By Chris Rosenblum

Never mind ghosts, ghouls and goblins. For scary, try this — a day to transform the Milesburg Citizen’s Hook and Ladder company firehouse into a house of horrors.

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Some might find this a monster challenge, but not Heidi Reese. She loves the devil in the details.

Reese, a union stagehand, prop builder and Halloween fan from Pleasant Gap, enjoys nothing more than providing the thrills and chills for the fire company’s annual Haunted Firehouse.

For those who dare, tours will run from 7 to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights and cost $7 for adults, $4 for children

younger than 12, with the proceeds helping the volunteer company meet its expenses. Food and drinks will be available while DJs play tunes.

“It’s kind of like a little block party outside while you’re waiting in line,” said Eric Mann, a firefighter in charge of the haunted house.

But before any of the victims, er, visitors arrive, Reese will work her black magic.

On Wednesday, she’ll pull up at the firehouse, her van and a trailer more cramped than Dracula’s coffin. She’ll unload all the fiendish stuff from the basement that serves as the laboratory and warehouse for her haunted house set designing company, Zombie Love Productions.

And then, the mistress of the macabre will devote the whole next day to her sinister plans.

“I can spend a good 15 to 17 hours building,” she said. “It can really take that long.”

She may carry plenty of secrets, but she’s willing to offer a few hints about what awaits in her chambers and catacombs. Step lively in the spider’s lair, my pretties, and look out for the clowns — they’re no laughing matter.

“I always have a zombie cemetery, which is my trademark,” said Reese, who also applies her dark arts for the Lemont Haunted Granary.

Anyone who survived the first three Haunted Firehouses, each a nightmare concocted by Reese, can count on one thing.

They’re sure to meet all sorts of frightening figures as twisted as this year’s new feature, a wooden maze.

Full of dead ends. Bwahaha.

Chris Rosenblum writes a weekly column about happenings in the Bald Eagle area. Send him news at crosenbl@centredaily.com or call 231-4620.