PHOTOS: Hundreds skip dinner to wage watery war with PFD

Who needs food when you have a rendezvous at a water fight?

That was apparently the mantra Thursday night for hundreds of Pentictonites who tossed dinner hour tradition out the window and headed instead to the sports fields of Penticton High School to answer the watery provocation put forth Tuesday by Penticton Fire Dept boss Larry Watkinson.

Watkinson said he "challenges all children" in his Tuesday tweet, and the kids certainly showed up for battle. As did the parents. And other random adults too.

Ultimately, it was a pretty good cross-section of the Penticton populace on one side and a flock of firefighters on the other.

It was a literal and figurative blast, and just the latest in a long and storied line of PFD vs kids/residents water fights.

Amanda Marghella of Penticton showed up with her hubby and a pair of children and happily got soaked herself.

"There are the things that make living here amazing," she said.

"This is our first year. We we going to do it last year, but we missed it. And the kids are loving it. What a nice family event. What nice firefighters to organize it."

Jason Curran, who said he's a "paid, on call" firefighter, was in the centre of the action all evening.

"This is my first time doing it," he said, "and it's great. It's really cool to see everyone come out."

We watched Curran and a fellow firefighter dump a large container of water on a couple of kids and asked how he could do that to innocent children.

"How can innocent children do this to us?" he laughed back..

Josh Gilbert played up the drama, acting and sounding like an action movie star every time he waded into the conflict.

"I have three kids," he said. "We just moved back from Edmonton. The Edmonton Fire Dept. never did anything like this. These guys are awesome."

No word on when or if there'll be a follow-up 2022 water fight, but we'll keep you posted.