es ercom v O n ions! t Passio a l u b i and Tr 5-A Trials , STATION 33
HTER NTO FIREFIG O R TO , O IN L ORSEL BY JAMES B
A
s far back as I can remember, I have always had a passion and fascination with fire trucks! As a kid, I had a Tonka Snorkle Tower, and when I was in high school, I had a collection of die cast Matchbox and Corgi fire trucks. The scale models were nice, but they didn’t truly fill my passion for fire trucks! In 1986, the Rockton Fire Company, part of the Flamborough Volunteer Firefighters, had bought an antique fire truck from the Town of Flamborough. It started its service in 1949 for the West Flamborough Fire Department, serving Greensville and area into the late 1970’s, remaining there until its sale in 1986. In my senior year of high school, they decided to bring it to my high school to have the students do mechanical and body repairs on it. I remember being in my math class, when I spotted a tow truck bringing the fire truck to the rear of the mechanical shop. As soon as class ended, three of us raced down to the shop to see it and to meet two of the veteran Volunteer Firefighters. Over the semesters, we replaced all the brakes, tuned the engine, removed the rear fenders for repair and did some rewiring of lights. It turned out to be the first fire truck I ever got to drive as I had to take it for test drives around the school
DELIVERY OF THE 1942 TO THE HAMILTON FIRE DEPARTMENT
to make sure the brakes and the siren still worked! I was definitely hooked! In 1988, I joined the Rockton Station of the Flamborough Fire Department and was reunited with the 1949 Chevy Bickle-Seagrave pumper. Unfortunately, I was too young to get to drive it, but I still got to take care of it. In 1989, I was hired by Toronto Fire and my volunteering ended, which meant no more 1949 pumper for me. Throughout my career, my collection of die cast fire trucks grew, but I still didn’t have what my passion really wanted an actual fire truck. I didn’t want just any fire truck though! I wanted the 1949. The day finally came when I received a phone call from one of the volunteers that owned the 1949. He was wondering if I was still interested in buying the old pumper. I answered, YAAA! I never thought I would actually get that truck, but I had built a large shop and it was perfect to store it in. A week later, it was parked in my shop. However, it would be over a year before I could get all the parties involved to complete the final sale! Now that I finally owned it, the fun began! I began to check it over and I made a list of things I needed to fix. I knew the brakes were seized because it took two tractors to drag it off the float truck and into my shop! It turned out the engine was also seized. The list of repairs were long and expensive! We decided that if we were going to do this right, we would
THE 1949 STANDING IN HONOUR OF RETIRED ROCKTON (TOWN OF FLAMBOROUGH) DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF’S FUNERAL
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