THE SANTA CLARA COUNTY CITY OF MILPITAS in California has been looking for a place to display their antique fire engine.

The 1932 converted farm truck was their first fire engine and for some reason can no longer be housed in Fire Station #1 downtown.  The truck, nicknamed Leapin’ Lena because of the way it jumped when the first gear was engaged, is now owned by the Milpitas Historical Society.

Milpitas Post photo

This week the historical group was able to work out an agreement with the City Council to place the truck in the library’s midtown parking garage.  A display area will be built including a security system to foil vandalism when the new garage is completed.

The city will provide $25,000 for the display construction and the historical society will provide the $14,000 security system as well as carrying liability insurance of at least $100,000.  It is expected that this location will be used for at least 10 years.

The Milpitas Post has the full STORY.

THE CROCKER, MISSOURI, CITY COUNCIL HAS DECIDED to take a 46-yr.-old “parade piece” pumper and donate it to a local volunteer fire department that doesn’t have a servicable fire engine of its own anymore.

Daily Guide/Maurina photo

The 1962 fire engine was the first one that the city had bought “brand new” and has lately been used for ceremonial events.  But on the recommendation of the Fire Chief, the aldermen were told of the greater need of the nearby Raymondville VFD and suggested the donation.

The Waynesville Daily Guide has the full STORY.

Firegeezer notes:  I would expect a savvy collecter to step in and trade a more modern pumper to them in exchange for this jewel.  It’s a beautiful-looking pumper.

BACK ON FEBRUARY 6 WE RAN THIS POSTING ASKING IF anbody could identify this pumper:

The source of the story was a newspaper in Nashua, New Hampshire that had a columnist who was asking his readers if anybody knew about the picture.

Well, one of our readers, Ed Hass came through.  A leading expert on the Ahrens-Fox nameplate, he sent us a detailed history of this antique.  We’ve moved his comment up to here so that everybody will see it.  Ed writes:

It is indeed an Ahrens-Fox fire engine, made in Cincinnati, Ohio. And bought at the same time as #907.

I have spent over 40 years researching the history of every Ahrens-Fox fire engine ever built. I have written and published numerous books and articles on this tyoe of fire engine, and I own a 1953 Ahrens-Fox fre engine of my own.

Here are the details of the one in your photo.

Registered Number 851 – Model M-11 – Nashua, NH 1918

Model M-11 booster and hose car. Six-cylinder Ahrens-Fox T-head Motor #859, 5-1/2″ bore x 7″ stroke, 72.6 horsepower. Front-mount “booster” rotary gear pump, 250 gallons per minute. 60-gallon “booster” water tank.

January 16, 1918: Fire & Water Engineering magazine, p. 53-Nashua, N.H.-It is reported that council will spend $24,000 for motor fire apparatus. [Ahrens-Fox Reg. Nos. 851 and 907]

June 12, 1918: Shipped to Nashua, NH.

June 19, 1918: Fire & Water Engineering magazine, p. 475-During the past few weeks, the Ahrens-Fox Fire Engine Company, of Cincinnati, Ohio, has made deliveries of fire apparatus to Nashua, N.H., two engines [Reg. Nos. 851 and 907]; Cincinnati, Ohio, 3 engines [Reg. Nos. 674, 675, and 677]; Anamosa, Iowa [Reg. No. 655]; and Dutch East Indies [Reg. No. 684], one engine each.

July 10, 1918: Fire & Water Engineering magazine, p. 32-An Ahrens-Fox motor fire pump was given a highly satisfactory test at Nashua, N.H., recently. The apparatus is equipped with two pumps, one of which pumped 350 gpm and the other on the supreme test pumped 1135 gpm. Besides the local officials there were present Chief John B. Gordon of the Haverhill fire department, members of the Haverhill board of aldermen, fire officials of Manchester, and others. The demonstration of this make of pumper made a favorable impression upon the spectators. [The 350 gpm refers to Reg. No. 851; the 1135 gpm was Reg. No. 907].

July 17, 1918: Fire & Water Engineering magazine, p. 50- The Ahrens-Fox Fire Engine Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, has recently delivered one of their motor pumping engines [Model N-2 #907] to the city of Nashua, N.H., and also delivered to the same city one of their booster pumping engines [Model M-11 #851], and both pieces of apparatus have been tested and placed in service. The motor pumping engine can flood the top of the highest building in Nashua with ease. The official test of this motor pumping engine was witnessed by a number of fire department and other officials from out of town, including Chief John B. Gordon and the Board of Aldermen of Haverhill, Mass.; Chief John R. Doyle of Wellesley, Mass.; and Chief Charles F. French of Manchester, N.H. The engine delivered 1155 gallons per minute through four lines of hose, 150 feet each, with one and one-eighth inch nozzles. The draft was eleven feet from the canal of the Nashua Manufacturing Company. It was stated that had the engine been attached to a hydrant at street level, 1400 gallons per minute could have been delivered.

Feb. 23, 1940: Ahrens-Fox supplied new Delco elctric generator/starter parts to Nashua for Model M-11 #851.

1944: Replaced. Had been serving as Hose 3. Junked.

Ed Hass
Elk Grove, California

“You could hear me coming a million miles away,” he said. “That engine is something else. And people knew to get out of my way, too, because loaded down with water, that thing was heavy.”

That’s how Ben Casey recently described what it was like to operate the Oriental Volunteer F.D. 1961 Oren/Autocar diesel pumper.

Sun Journal photo

The Pamlico County, North Carolina, fire department ran the truck for 40 years and then donated it to the Pamlico Community College to be used for training.

Now it has outlived its purpose and will be offered by the State for sale by auction on E-Bay starting later this week.

Read about it and where to find the listing HERE.
Oren Fire Apparatus database project WEB PAGE.

ATTENTION:  ANTIQUE PUMPER AFFICIANADOS AND FIRE BUFFS…..

The Nashua (New Hampshire) Telegraph is looking for some help in identifying a pumper circa. 1920.  They’re wanting to learn the make of the fire engine and possibly where the fire was.

They have some clues, including the photographer’s name stamped on the back, in this article HERE.  If you can add something to the knowledge, then let them know.

Firegeezer squints and wonders:  Is that a front-mounted pump on there?  I don’t see one elsewhere.

ON SATURDAY WE REPORTED (HERE) ON THE car that crashed through the bay door of the Rothesay, New Brunswick, fire station and came to rest wedged between an engine and a pillar.

This morning Chief Larry Greer sent us an update of the poor man who suffered the medical emergency and he included some more information about their 1924 chemical wagon that we pictured.

Chief Greer writes:

A quick update on the gentleman who visited our station rather abruptly last week; he had an operation and is now up and walking. The accident actually caused him no serious harm, the operation was a result of a medical condition that caused the accident. I have attached a picture of the vehicle as it came to rest in the station.

As for our 1924 ‘T’, it is a replica of the first fire apparatus in Rothesay. We built it as a bi-centennial project in 1984 with several parts from the original apparatus. Many other parts were located across Canada and the U.S. It took 11 months to build and was first proudly operated by Fire Chief Geoff Sayre to commemorate our first annual parade & fire muster in Rothesay. The original came from Woodstock Ontario by rail in 1924. This excerpt is from the Rothesay Living Museum web-site:

“Rothesay was incorporated as a village in 1921 with Mr. John E. Sayre, the first chairman.
Mr.Sayre and Mr. Fred Crosby bought a 1924 Model T Fire Truck and this original first fire truck was brought out from Saint John and put in the Crosby’s garage. That very night, Mr. Sayre’s house caught on fire. At first, everyone thought it must be a practical joke, but it was not a practical joke and the truck was put to use successfully.”

C. Larry Greer
Fire Chief
Kennebecasis Valley Fire Dept. Inc.

Thank you, Chief Greer.  You can visit their website HERE.

S.F. Chronicle photo 

BACK IN 1974, SAN FRANCISCO’S ENGINE HOUSE 33, BUILT IN 1896, COULD NO LONGER admit the larger fire engines that were being made.  That and the need for modernization of the interior led to the City’s decision to build a new firehouse around the corner and sell old #33 as surplus property.

Enter Robert and Marilyn Katzman, two successful artists who were looking for something unique to call “home.”  After looking at the property they just knew that this was “it” and attended the property auction where they had the winning bid of $79,000 for the 4,000-sq. ft. building that still had the 30-ft. brass pole in it.

Marilyn Katzman slides into the engine bay.
Chroncle photo

They kept the pole and upgraded the kitchen, turned the officer’s quarters into their son’s bedroom, and converted the dormitory into their (huge) bedroom.  After a few years residence and sculpting, they started researching the history of the firehouse and the neighborhood.

Their office is in the former watchroom
Chronicle photo

   “We started discovering memorabilia and meeting people,” Marilyn said.  “We started creating products with a fire theme like toys in little fire buckets and fire chili base.”

The couple set up booths at firefighter musters to sell their products. At Christmas time they opened the firehouse to the public.  Then they decided that they should have a fire engine to park in the bay.  So they went out and purchased a 1955 Mack pumper.  One thing led to another and they turned their knowledge of local fire history into a tour business, converting the hose bed into a 15-seat passenger area.

Fire Engine Tours photo

Now they are ready to retire and have put the firehouse, engine and the active tour business up for sale as a package deal.  They’re asking $3.3 million for the whole shebang.

Read the details in this San Francisco Chronicle ARTICLE.
Check out their tour company’s WEBSITE.  Lots of pix in there.

Now…Watch Their Sales Video
(it includes a tour of the firehouse)

BACK ON TUESDAY, DAVE STATTER RAN A SERIES of four early motion picture films (1897-1904) of steamers and other FD apparatus.

One of the films is of the annual NYC fireman’s parade where you get to see some water towers and a team of truckies carrying about 20 pompier ladders.

It’s a great treat.  If you missed them, click HERE and take a look.  Maybe we can get him to make it an annual posting.

 Update:  video added.

OR MORE PRECISELY:  The North Charleston and American LaFrance Fire Museum and Educational Center.

Today’s Charleston Post and Courier has a feature article on this new museum that just opened this Fall.  It’s a good, comprehensive story on the educational center and is especially interesting because of the new and innovative educational exhibits that are incorporated into the ALF antique fire engine displays.

George Spaulding image

Grant Mishoe, who is the publisher of the fire blog SConFire.com, is the Curator of History of the museum.

Read the entire STORY.

Click to play Video