Zoneton Fire District prepping for Santa runs as chief battles cancer, COVID-19

BULLITT COUNTY, Ky. (WAVE) - A 23-year Christmas tradition will continue in Bullitt County.

Monday, the Zoneton Fire Protection District began preparing for its annual Santa runs, transforming one of the department’s fire engines into a Christmas spectacular.

“This is by far my favorite event we do each year and a majority of our community [feels] the same way,” Captain Steve Corbin said. “They love it. They look forward to it. They look forward to it all year long.”

Corbin has been the brains behind the Santa runs for more than a decade, tasked with the responsibility of making each celebration bigger than the year before.

This year, however, Corbin and his team are stringing the lights with heavy hearts. In October, Fire Chief Rob Orkies was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in his neck and lymph nodes.

As of Monday, Orkies remains intubated in the hospital fighting COVID-19-induced pneumonia.

“He’s been like another dad, and it makes it tough because he’s usually the one on top of there,” Corbin said. “And we know that it’s something that he would definitely want to continue on.”

Corbin said the pandemic will force them to make change to the annual celebration. Santa will not leave the truck to take pictures with spectators, and the number of people aboard the engine will be reduced dramatically. Still, the light show will go on as scheduled, because Corbin said it’s what the chief would want.

“We just have to continue to pray and get him better and get him out and that way he can be up here next year,” Corbin said.

The Zoneton Santa runs begin on Dec. 3rd. See below for a full schedule: