IN WITH THE OLD

Mechanic Liam Moore transports old US fire trucks to Ireland and puts them to good use in the community.

After 32 years of service, Ladder 5211, a tiller fire truck equipped with a 100-foot ladder used by the Glen Cove Fire Department in New York, made its way out of the Long Island community and on towards Newark, New Jersey to cross the Atlantic and find a new home.

A ceremonial send-off by firefighters, complete with police escort from Nassua County police, NYPD and Port Authority Police, saw the engine given the type of farewell usually only reserved for retiring Fire Captains at the end of their careers, but this particular vehicle, decommissioned two years ago, was until recently a valued part of the Glen Cove FD team.

“It could not have happened to a better truck,” said city of Glen Cove Fire Chief Marvin Tate as the truck left its hometown. “I don’t think anything like that has ever happened for another fire truck before.” The first Chief ever to drive Ladder 5211, Thomas Cross, also gave it its final run, driving it to the port as it left for pastures new.

The send off was possible because of Dublin mechanic Liam Moore, who stepped in and bought the vehicle to add to his collection that started with the purchase of a 1967

Mack pumper he obtained from the fire department in Torrington, Connecticut, in 2014.

BEGINNINGS

“I was retiring and my father had just died and left me a few quid,” Liam tells me. “My wife also died around the same time, so there was money lying around and I was looking for something to do, and was going to buy myself a nice car, but I went to see a Ferrari and couldn’t get in or out of it, and in the end, I decided to look for something more unusual.”

Having first looked at an old airport fire truck and deciding “it looked great but was a danger on the road”, Liam gave up until his wife’s sister-in-law came across an online auction for an old fire truck.

“She rang me and said she’d found exactly what I was looking for,” he says. “The only problems were that it was in America, and I only had 45 minutes to make my mind up because the bidding had already begun. I didn’t even see it, but she said it was operational, so I logged in and put a bid on it and won. I hadn’t even considered how to get it over here.”

Once he did see the pictures of the fire truck, Liam said he knew he had made the right choice. “It was gorgeous,” he tells me, “it had everything, the chrome, the parts, and it worked, so I sent the money over and became the new proud owner.”

Liam called on Joe Kelly, who runs the Midlands American Car Show, knowing he would know a thing or two about importing from the States, and while it wasn’t going to be cheap, he knew it would be worthwhile when he did get his hands on it.

“I really enjoyed playing around with it and got some great years out of it,” he says, and three years later he saw another US fire truck for sale on Facebook – a 1970 Hahn pumper from the fire department in the town of Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

The Mack truck from Torrington.

THE HAHN

“It’s a big, bulky, mean-looking machine,” Liam says, “but it was relatively cheap, and to be honest, people find it hard not to like vehicles like this. Irish fire engines are closed up but the American ones have everything open and visible so you can see all the tools and equipment.

“Importantly, it worked well and I could drive it,” he adds. “They have to be operational for me to buy them because if the pump goes, for instance, you can’t drive it, so that would be no good, but it has everything going for it, and has a great engine.”

With the arrival of each of these trucks, Liam says he spent a great deal of time just playing around with them and working hard on their upkeep, which is constant, and even though he had to take a few feet off his house to make room for them in his garden, he says the time spent on them is very worthwhile. “It really was something for me to do when I retired,” he says. “Because you can’t buy the parts anymore, myself and my two sons, who are both mechanics like me, had to make them ourselves, and that was great fun.

“The American vehicles are all big and bulky, and we could play around with them to get them to work, although I find it hard to get my sons to help sometimes! The upkeep does keep me busy, and they are expensive when it comes to fuel, but they are great!”

Families love to take a look at the old fire trucks. Liam Moore with one of his beloved vintage fire trucks.

CHARITY

Apart from the fun Liam has, these old American fire trucks soon took on another role, and anybody who has been to the Open Days in Rathfarnham or Phibsboro, or to any of the other many local community fundraisers DFB has been present at, might recognise them as two of the main attractions that draw crowds of curious onlookers.

This involvement started when FF/P Derek Riordan from Tallaght Fire Station approached Liam about bringing the vehicles along to DFB Open Days and other fundraising events. Liam agreed immediately, eager to share the fire truck experience with families and to help raise funds for charity, something which had a particular meaning for Liam as his wife had died of cancer at the age of 55, so he has been happy to be a part of fundraising events for cancer charities and other good causes. “My wife Helen would have been delighted to see me at charity events with the fire engines,” he tells me.

“Derek knows everyone and is always happy to help anyone out, so sometimes you are on board with a charity event before you even know it yourself, but we really enjoy going to them,” Liam tells me. “It gets us out, and my son Liam really likes driving them to the events. Families can come along and children can get in the back of the truck and look at all the equipment. Sometimes we are able to give a few people a spin in the truck. Everyone always enjoys looking at them, and they make a lot of noise, which everyone gets a kick out of. Both trucks have proved really popular at every event we bring them to, and we are always happy to have them at DFB events. We also have no problem getting someone else to drive them to these events because all we do is phone up DFB and they send someone along to bring it wherever they need to go. And we never charge for any fundraising event.”

The trucks are a real attraction.

LADDER 5211

With the great appeal of the Mack and Hahn vehicles, Liam was soon looking around for another old American fire truck, and that’s when Ladder 5211 from Glen Cove in New York came into the picture.

“I saw this one up for auction but we actually lost in the bidding,” he tells me. “However, the bidding process allowed for anyone to put in another bid outside of the auction, so myself and my contact over in America got in touch with the Glen Cove Fire Department, the company auctioning it on their behalf, and the mayor, and put in a better bid, because I really wanted it, and thankfully we made a deal.”

Doing the deal was only the start of the process, however, as there was an enormous amount of red tape involved in organising to have the vehicle transported from its Long Island home through New York to New Jersey, then on to Europe before arriving in Dublin in April.

“My friend Johnny Weldon is a former DFB member who now lives over in America and he did all of the groundwork in terms of going out and looking at the truck, making sure it was fitted out and ready to go,” Liam says. “He was my man on the ground over there and it would have been a lot

“Everyone always enjoys looking at them, and they make a lot of noise, which everyone gets a kick out of”

Ladder5211 starts its long journey to Ireland.

Ladder5211 gets a police escort through Glen Cove.

harder to sort everything out without his help, so I am very grateful to him. Fire Chief Marvin Tate from Glen Cove was also very helpful, and I must say thanks to him too. Even though it took a long time to sort everything out, he told me that organising getting his beloved fire truck over to Dublin with a proper send-off was the biggest thing he had done in his career after 30 years in the job.

“I also like the fact that the person who drove the truck out of Glen Cove to New Jersey for shipment was the first person to drive it when Glen Cove got it more than 30 years ago,” Liam says. “He is 82 now but they brought him out from Pennsylvania to bring it to the docks, and he was in tears driving it. You could see what it meant to him and to others in the fire department over there. That’s a nice story to have attached to it.”

He admits: “I always wanted a ladder truck, ever since I had gotten the first one. We paid a lot for it, but we were very well looked after in terms of getting all the equipment included. The Glen Cove Fire Department made sure it was fully equipped with hoses and all of the paraphernalia.

“It is a very good truck with only 30,000 miles on it and while it had a few mechanical issues to fix it was in good working order and again was fully operational. If you look at a picture of it, it is very hard to tell which is the old truck and which is the new one brought in to replace it.

“It’s gorgeous, and it has seen a lot of action and has some history. It was on standby for 9/11 at a location close to Ground Zero in case it was needed, and was at a few major fires in Glen Cove, one of which involved rescuing 12 people from an apartment complex fire in 1993 who wouldn’t have survived if it weren’t for this truck. It saw a massive number of fires and a lot of action.”

That incident was described by Glen Cove Fire Chief Tate as “the crowning moment for the truck”.

Its involvement in so many incidents is what made it mean so much to the firefighters of Glen Cove, who posted a heartfelt goodbye to it on social media, saying: “Ladder 5211 has been more than a piece of fire apparatus, but a trusty comrade in service to the Glen Cove Volunteer Fire Department for over 32 years. The chiefs and members of the department could not be happier that her legacy will be preserved and she will be used for charitable purposes in Dublin, Ireland.”

While its former owners will be sorry to see it go, Liam is only too happy to get hold of it and continue its long life in service to the community over here.

“We are looking forward to getting our hands on it,” Liam says. “I can’t wait to have a first look at it and spend a couple of days going over it to check it is all in order and working properly. I have to make room for it in the back garden!

“But we are also looking forward to bringing it along to more fundraising events and DFB Open Days when they are allowed to start again after the pandemic. We always get a great reaction from the trucks, and this one will be no different, so we can’t wait to show it off!

The Glen Cove FD pays tribute before the truck leaves for Ireland.