Firefighter grows Colorados first 1-ton pumpkin, breaks own record

DENVER ( KDVR ) — A firefighter from Aurora who had previously set the state record for the heaviest pumpkin has beat that record with another pumpkin weighing over one ton.

Brad Bledsoe, a fire medic with Aurora Fire Rescue, broke the state record with a pumpkin that weighed 1,955 pounds late last month. The next weekend, another grower presented a pumpkin that was 21 pounds heavier.

But on Saturday, one of his home-grown pumpkins, named Winifred Sanderson (a nod to the popular Halloween film “Hocus Pocus”), became the first in Colorado history to weigh over one ton.

The Great Pumpkin Commonwealth weighed the pumpkin at 2,083 pounds at a Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off at Nick’s Garden Center and Farm Market in Aurora.

“I really wanted to be the first person in Colorado to grow a one-ton pumpkin,” said Bledsoe. “I feel that’s important to get to, and hopefully they’ll just keep getting bigger and bigger.”

Bledsoe has been a firefighter in Aurora since 2016 and previously worked at a nursery. He began growing large pumpkins four years ago when he grew what he thought to be a large pumpkin.

“We started growing a pumpkin in the front yard and we ended up having a 195-pound pumpkin,” he said. “The neighborhood was invested, they loved it. We took it to the weigh-off and my daughter, who was four at the time, asked me why my pumpkin was so small. That got my competitiveness going.”

Bledsoe s till has another giant pumpkin that has yet to be weighed. Aurora Fire Rescue said that pumpkin will be weighed in Fort Collins next weekend.

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