We all have that Halloween horror story – the one memory of a place or event that gives us the creeps even to this day.
Pulling together the scariest themes in Halloween history, Palm Coast’s friendliest firefighters have transformed Station #21 into the Hall of Terror for a 20th anniversary spooktacular.
Fright Night – Best Years Ever
Palm Coast firefighter Lt. Dan Driscoll can tell you his favorite year. It lines up with one of his personal hobbies – reading, and gave him insight into designing what has been his all-time favorite Hall of Terror over the past 20 years.
“I started helping out with the show in 2012. I always keep ideas in my head, see what works, what doesn’t work, get feedback from the citizens,” he said, incorporating an overall theme for each year’s show when he took over as the production’s lead eight years ago.
“My favorite year was definitely the Stephen King year. I read a lot of his books and we spent a lot of time, we rebuilt a car inside of one of the rooms like the car Christine which would come on and the horn would blink. All the rooms were different Stephen King stories. The synergy was impressive that year and it was so completely good,” he said enthusiastically.
“This year is an all new layout that nobody’s seen yet. This year we have six rooms but we have some surprises in there that aren’t following the usual format. Because it’s our 20th anniversary I wanted it to be retrospective. We’re calling it ‘All Halls Break Loose’, so all halls of the past will combine into one big show.”
Since taking over of the Hall of Terror from his predecessor Lt. Rich Cline, it’s been a labor of love that he and fellow firefighters look forward to each year.
“The very first idea for this took place in Chief Forte’s front yard,” shared Driscoll. “The event started over 20 years ago as a way for the kids to have a safe place to come trick-or-treating. The guys at the station said ‘why don’t we do a haunted house’, and so now it’s evolved into as close as we can do to a theme park caliber haunted house, but for free.”
Watching preparation for the 20th anniversary Hall of Terror, Palm Coast Fire Chief Jerry Forte was reminded of the event’s modest beginnings.
“We started off with a coffin and some air machines, some compressors and things, and maybe got 50 kids,” said Forte. “The next year we got more kids to come. The following year we started putting lines out and the kids started coming to the station and we started expanding it out. By 2003-2004 it got enormous. We were seeing 2,000 kids a weekend, and then we started seeing 2,000 kids a night.”
With just two more years left before retirement, Lt. Rich Cline knew he needed to start preparing for someone to step into his shoes as the wizard behind the curtain of Palm Coast’s scariest family-friendly Halloween activity, and Driscoll proved to have what it takes.
“I started this with Captain Forte who is now Fire Chief Forte in 2001 and we felt that year 13 as I’m retiring and starting to move my way towards the door we needed to have an heir apparent. Many people talked and contrived and decided Dan was going to be the one to take over as his mind is almost as warped as mine,” Cline said with good humor.
Recalling his favorite year, Cline says they went all in with Halloween Horror Nights-worthy sets and scares.
“It was the zombies. We had a green screen with TV news going on outside that a local production company shot for us with Chief Forte as the newscaster, and we had areas of Palm Coast in each room. There was Holland Park, there was Publix, there was City Hall, and the zombies were overrunning them,” he said, taking it back to 2014 or 15.
“That was crazy. It was a good year. We had a couple of professional makeup artists who came and did all the zombie makeup. It was insane.”
It’s a team effort at the firehouse to get everything ready, and as Cline oversees the mechanics behind the curtain, he’s literally like the Wizard of Oz, ensuring the lights and sounds have visitors howling in fright.
“We have emergency exits we can take you out of if we have to and it has happened a few times,” said Cline, sharing a blast from the past.
“I remember one year when we were in the old Station 21 where Kohl’s is now, they gave us the building, this one was already open, and the construction company gave us the building through the end of October so we could do the last Hall of Terror in there. We had the ability to cut out walls and do what we needed inside. We scared this one woman to the point she went out the back door and I don’t think she’s stopped running yet. She was screaming, she ran across Belle Terre Parkway into the Albertson’s parking lot and I lost sight of her. When people scream and cry, that means I did my job that year.”
Patrick Juliano, a lieutenant with the Palm Coast fire department remembers his favorite year, way back in the early years of his service.
“I started back in 2006, and if you remember the old WWF Paul Bearer, that’s what I used to set up. My background before I became a firefighter is I worked in the funeral homes, so part of that was how I had an old fashioned toe pincher type coffin with the smoke machines underneath and the funeral parlor set up,” he said.
It takes crackerjack timing to pull it all off each year, but it’s worth it, according to Juliano.
“It’s a lot of anxiety to get it set up and perfect, but as you start going through and you hear the screams, it just pumps you up a little more because you know you’re doing your job right. What’s exciting is when you start hearing them yell ‘no, no, no, I don’t want to go’ that’s what really makes it fun. My family’s come through, and my mom will not come through. They got her good one year but it’s so much fun.”
The best year for him harkens back to a family memory.
“My favorite year was 2008. It was the last year we did it at our old fire station,” shared Juliano. “That year we transformed the entire fire station before they tore it down into the haunted house and that was my favorite year. My dad and I built this big tomb that we had and somebody popped out of it. It was so cool.”
Promising to deliver a fright night Palm Coasters won’t forget, the production team took media and dignitaries on a behind-the-scenes tour before opening night to get a look at the grizzly scenes awaiting visitors.
From the required human sacrifice to enter the Hall of Terror, to the Chop Shop, The Ring-themed room, a visit from Jason Voorhees and a mystery room featuring only a drain in the floor that kept team members tight lipped on the surprise, it’s free fun that won’t scare the pocketbook.
“It’s amazing. Lt. Driscoll is the creative genius behind all of this. He comes up with some awesome ideas and how to put this all together. It’s just a great thing, especially that the community loves stuff like this. It’s the only free haunted house in northeast Florida and I can’t think of any other fire department in the state or country that does something like this, so we’re excited,” said Juliano.
Getting the behind the scenes tour, Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin was thrilled by the walk thru while learning more about the history behind the Hall of Terror.
“These events are the glue that bring our community together. People have been home, in their own homes. They need to get out, say hello to your neighbor and come out to an event. Bring your kids and say hello to the village – and it’s free.”
Palm Coast’s 20th Anniversary Hall of Terror
Palm Coast Fire Station #21
9 Corporate Drive, Palm Coast
Saturday 7-9 PM
Sunday 7-10 PM
Free Admission
