Firefighters deliver scant donations

Firefighters delivered 144 toy bags Wednesday to children at the Head Start Riverdale program in Glendale.

Los Angeles-based TelePacific donated the decorative bags, which contained about 10 toys each, to the Glendale Fire Department.

Firefighters arrived at the campus in the 300 block of Riverdale Drive in the department’s ladder truck to hand out the toys.

Toy donations were down this holiday season from past years while the need for gifts increased, Firefighter Chris Mays said.

Firefighters scattered toy donation boxes throughout the city, but contributions were still low, he said.

One box at the Americana at Brand yielded just five toys in the span of a week, Mays said.

The Fire Department received 50 requests from community groups and schools for toy donations, which firefighters are still trying to fulfill, he said.