PHOTOS: Hundreds in Forest Falls for 16th Annual Chili Cookoff

Firefighters have been busy in Forest Falls, with more than a dozen rescues in the past three weeks and as many as 30 so far this year, including several during the current July 4th weekend.

On Sunday July 7 they helped stage the town's 16th Annual Chili Cookoff, billed as a fundraiser for Valley of the Falls Community Center.

Hundreds of residents and visitors turned out, including a group from Loma Linda. George Maldonado, 22, Amara Champion, 15 and Kaycee Burns, 15, came with Kaycee's mom, Lori Burns.

"We've been coming seven years," Loris Burns said. "Everything, the food, the people . . . it's all good!"

Retired firefighters Dean Tiewater and Bob Clark, who grew up in Forest Falls, made their "Wild Wild West" chili.

"We were raised here and both of us were in the fire department, and we're all retired now," Clark said. "We support our kids, everybody's involved. Our kids are on the fire department now. It's all a big family and we get together for this."

Tiewater says their recipe includes "a little bit of this, a little bit of that, sausage, burger, onions, jalapeños, Fresno chilis, cayenne, garlic, and a little bit of secret sauce we can't talk about. We make it ourselves and it's just a lot of fun."

Forest Falls resident Garth Jensen won last year's cookoff and he was in the competition with the same recipe this year.

"It was my first time ever doing it," Jensen said. "Got lucky. Used a little bit of tri-tip. It's called 'Where There's Smoke There's Fire.' . . . There's not any secret. I just looked on the internet at a bunch of chili contest recipes, took what I liked out of each one, put'em all together and made it my own.

"I use like four different types of chili powder, Gebhardt's, ancho chili powder for the smokiness, Pasilla chili powder, mix them with some cumin and some garlic salt, not too much, put some pepper bacon in there, because bacon makes everything better so. . . . It's a good event, gets everybody out and we get to see everybody. It's a good day."

Ken and Bonnie Joswiak, also of Forest Falls, have been making chili for 15 years, and they didn't want to disclose details about their recipe. Ken did say "There's a lot of good stuff in there" and Bonnie added "There's a lot of love."

Rob Rock of Forest Falls made Entry #7 and he was named the winner, Gail Forgues at Elkhorn General Store said Sunday afternoon. This year's cookoff proceeds benefit Valley of the Falls Community Center, but the event was held in honor of Station 99 firefighters, Forgues said.

"They've had to go on some real crummy calls this year, including the tour bus crash, they've known some of the people, so we wanted to do something special for them," Forgues said.

Forest Falls Firefighter-EMT Ania Parciak, who is heavy-rescue certified, took care of traffic control at one end of Valley of the Falls Drive during the cook-off. She said she and others at Station 99 have been busy so far this year, but she referred specific questions to supervisors.

Station 99 helps protect 1,250 residents in a mountain area of 26 square miles, according to a county fire web page.

To read recent Redlands-Loma Linda Patch coverage of rescues at the falls in Mill Creek Canyon, click the following links:

UPDATE: Dangerous Beauty: Three More Injured at Falls in Mill Creek Canyon

BREAKING NEWS: Girl Injured at Falls, Rescued by Firefighters, Medics, Helicopter Crew