A safer way to 'Fill the Boot'

Firefighters retreat from streets to roadsides for MDA fundraiser

COEUR d'ALENE — In the good old days of "Fill the Boot," firefighters stood in streets, sometimes right smack under stoplights in the road, as traffic buzzed by. But Friday morning, Coeur d'Alene firefighters were off the pavement as they held boots to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. There's a reason for that, said Josh Sutherland, a firefighter. In years past, occasionally, a firefighter somewhere would get clipped by a vehicle. "You stand in the street long enough, it happens," he said. So they moved to safer ground. Sutherland was joined by fellow firefighters Kelan McKeirnan and Trenton Fleury on Dalton Avenue outside Anchored Coffee near U.S. 95 on a cool afternoon.