Keota residents Caleb and Jerrica Morgan and their 4-year-old daughter Cora go through the line at the Richland Fireman's Breakfast Sunday, June 2. (Andy Hallman/The Union)

RICHLAND – Everybody who visited the Richland Firehouse Sunday morning left with a full belly.

The Richland Fire Department hosted its annual Fireman’s Breakfast that day, and served a filling menu of pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, biscuits and gravy, and even a doughnut for dessert. The event is the largest fundraiser for the fire department to go along with its annual soup supper around Halloween.

Richland Fire Chief Mitch Ehrenfelt, who has been a firefighter for 20 years and fire chief for the past 12, said he was pleased with Sunday’s crowd, though he didn’t have a headcount of attendees. He said the breakfast normally draws 350-400 people. To prepare for such a large crowd, the fire department purchases two whole hogs for their sausages, plus nearly 60 pounds of bacon. Firefighter Jacob Wonderlich said they ordered 105-dozen eggs (1,260 eggs in all) for their scrambled eggs, cooking about 48 eggs at a time on their griddle.

Ehrenfelt said the money raised at the fundraiser goes toward the day-to-day operations of the fire department. The department boasts 24 members, all volunteers, and nearly all of them were on hand to help with the Firemen’s Breakfast.

“Some of our wives and family members helped, too,” said Ehrenfelt, who added that community members provided baked goods for the occasion.

Ehrenfelt said the large attendance at the breakfast was emblematic of the town’s community-mindedness and its growing population. He said a lot of young people in their late 20s are moving back to Richland after spending some time away.

“If you look at the guys in the back who are cooking, a lot of those guys are 35 or younger,” Ehrenfelt said. “We have some older guys with some experience, but we have a lot of young guys with young families who donate their time to the community.”

Ehrenfelt said new firefighters invest more than 200 hours in training just to join the department. Usually, Richland Fire Department asks around to see if neighboring towns need to train firefighters, too, and if they can get a group of at least 12, the state will pay for the training.