ADAMS — Officials with the Adams Fire Department are weighing their legal options after a late cancellation of a carnival rides vendor forced some scrambling before their Firemen’s Field Days weekend.

“It’s very frustrating,” said Robert J. Simpson, the department’s second assistant chief. “But on the other side of the coin, everybody felt really good about the fact we put together something and saved it.”

The event, which ran from Saturday to Monday, is one of the main fundraisers for the department.

Mr. Simpson said that a contract with Midway Rides, Utica, had been in place since the beginning of May, and that the department would receive whatever money was raised above a set figure. He said the department had not put up any money before the event.

The company told the department on Friday afternoon it would not be able to come for the weekend. Mr. Simpson said an attorney is reviewing its contract to see if there is any legal recourse for the late cancellation.

Dana Peck, the company’s owner, declined to comment on specifics of the weekend and his company’s cancellation, calling it “circumstances out of our control.”

Mr. Simpson said the department heard there might be problems Aug. 27, days before the event’s start. He said the company informed him labor issues were causing the problem.

At 4:30 p.m. Friday, the company told the department it could not come for the weekend. Instead, it offered an air castle and slide, along with a concession trailer equipped to serve popcorn and snow cones.

Before that, with no concrete answer on whether the rides would be available, the department’s officers met at 3 p.m. Friday to work out an alternative plan for the weekend.

“What are we going to do?” Mr. Simpson said, recalling the meeting. “We’ve got till 5 p.m. to call these people up.”

Doing a quick online search for air castle providers in the Syracuse area, the officers found Dougherty’s Party Services and rented four inflatable attractions and a snow cone machine for the weekend. The fire department owns a popcorn machine.

Taier E. Parsnow, an operations manager for that company, said the request was “very unusual” for a community-type event, adding most of its last-minute requests are for birthday parties. While the company usually scouts an area before setting up for an event, it had to rely on what it knew from past work around the area.

“We kind of had to wing it when we got there,” Mr. Parsnow said.

Another department member who serves on Fort Drum was able to rent an additional inflatable from the post’s Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation office.

With a new vendor in place, department members and their families, along with teens from the department’s Explorer program, helped supervise the inflatables and sell tickets.

“We’re happy to put together what we did,” Mr. Simpson said. “The alternative is we’re doing nothing.”

He said good weather through the holiday weekend led to good attendance and strong food sales, including 500 chicken halves and 400 pieces of fried dough.

“We were dealt that bad hand, but we played it and played it well,” Mr. Simpson said.

Mr. Simpson said a tally had not been made of how much the department had raised during the event, and declined to speculate on how much money had been lost by the change in plans.

He said the department would not work with Midway Rides again.

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