Three Columbiana County Firefighters who have been aiding in the cleanup effort in Mayfield, Kentucky worked a few extra hours to prevent a tornado from being the Grinch who steals Christmas from the tornado-ravaged town.

Calcutta Firefighter Randy Schneider, Chief Dave McCoy, and Hanover Township Firefighter Tim Roush have been posting Facebook updates of their volunteer efforts this week, as they perform duties ranging from traffic control to collecting street signs blown away by the storm.

As their workday was nearing an end on Thursday, one of the firefighters spotted a large, cone-shaped frame about two blocks from city hall, only to learn it was what was left of the community’s Christmas Tree.

The firefighters grabbed a backhoe and dragged the tree back to city hall and put it back in place.

The volunteers say they found most of the tree’s garland that had been tossed around by the wind and strung it on the tree.

As dusk approached, the firefighters went to a local store and bought Christmas lights and two American flags to hang from city hall and the Police Department whose flag poles had been knocked down.

Mayfield Firefighters stopped by to help the volunteers string the lights on the tree.

The rest of the story, told by the post on the Calcutta Fire Department Facebook page, sounds similar to the happy end of the Dr. Suess classic tale, “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”.

 As the lights went up people of the town started to gather. The fireman and inspector started crying and hugging us as they helped us hang them. I asked what’s wrong? They replied, “this has been so hard on all of us and can’t even think about Christmas, the fact you guys took the time the last couple hours to put our Christmas tree up to bring us joy we don’t even have words for what it means to us right now.” Now me not being an emotional person I started to cry and hug them as well. We hung up the American flags from the rooftop and someone said why in the middle of this would you hang up a Christmas tree and flags? I said because people need a sign of hope and hopefully it brings a smile to someone’s face this holiday season.