Twice a year, hundreds of people from all over the county and beyond travel to Elberta for the biannual German Sausage Festival, which benefits the Elberta Volunteer Fire Department.

Oct. 27, the fall sausage festival will take place from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and more than 7,000 pounds of the fire department’s unique sausage will be cooked and consumed, along with goulash, sauerkraut and other German favorites.

And one man is behind all of the logistics — Elberta Volunteer Fire Chief Steve Kirkpatrick. He works out the details with the 150 vendors who will set up booths at the event, schedules the rental of refrigerated trucks to transport the food and, of course, knows all about how the sausage gets its distinct flavor.

“It’s cooked on a pit with charcoal in it,” Kirkpatrick said. “The grease drips out of the sausage and onto the charcoal and creates this smoke. So it is hot, but it’s smoked also. And the pit is about 40 feet long, and there are people flipping it as it goes down. When it gets to the end, it’s ready.”

Kirkpatrick, who has been fire chief for 16 years, coordinates the festivals each spring and fall. Every year, the events bring in more than $80,000 for the department, which receives no funding from the city of Elberta, Kirkpatrick said.

This money, along with about $130,000 a year all Baldwin County volunteer fire departments receive from county property taxes, has helped pay for 10 fire trucks and the maintenance of three stations, Kirkpatrick said.

The fire department covers 60 square miles around Elberta and has 36 volunteers. Most of the calls the department responds to are car accidents, but there are a few structural fires every year and frequent field fires the volunteers handle as well, Kirkpatrick said.

Kirkpatrick, 56, has lived in Elberta for 42 years. He grew up in Mobile, but he and his wife Doreen wanted to raise their two daughters, now ages 17 and 20, in a more rural community.

“It’s just kind of a quiet, lazy community,” he said. “It was a good place to raise my daughters. Everybody knows everybody — sometimes that’s good and sometimes that’s not.”

When he was 32, Kirkpatrick was invited by a friend to join the volunteer fire department.

“I guess then it was just a night to get out of the house, but now it definitely takes some time,” he said. “I do a lot of the administrative stuff — budget, equipment purchases, writing bids, requesting bids — and I still run calls when I’m in town."

When he’s not in town, Kirkpatrick is busy running Foley Golf Course. He also owns Kirkpatrick Electric, and his family manages about 40 commercial rental properties.

In the past, Kirkpatrick served on the Elberta Town Council for 16 years. He also ran for mayor this past August, but failed to unseat incumbent mayor Marvin Williams.

“I’m out of politics for now, but I enjoyed it,” he said. “I’ve seen Elberta change a lot in the past 16 years.”

Although he doesn’t get paid for his duties at the volunteer fire department, Kirkpatrick said he thoroughly enjoys his time there and doesn’t mind the extra work because of the camaraderie he shares with the other volunteers.

“I’ve got daughters; I don’t have any sons,” Kirkpatrick said. “The younger guys are pretty entertaining. It’s amazing to how silly and entertaining they can be, picking on each other and stuff, and then when it’s time to cut somebody out of a car and you’ve got a minute to get to them, these guys will get the job done. They are well trained."