Okay, so not totally on accident. He had been researching international trucks for a few months and found this one up for auction. It was a good deal so he placed a bid, but we were pretty sure that the previous bidder would out bid. As it turned out, we ended up out bidding the guy by a whopping $50.00.
As I mentioned, that was a month ago. It has taken that long to actually take possession of the truck.
Who knew that purchasing a 1976 international Fire Truck sight-un-seen from a guy in California and then getting it to Austin, TX would be so difficult.
Jonathan made plans for a cross county road trip to pick it up, but in the end it was more practical and cost effective to have it shipped. And when you are buying a fire truck practicality is priority.
The shipping presented it's own hiccups; to small of a trailer sent to pick it up, then the driver's truck broke down while hauling it and had to wait for parts....but never the less it is here in all it's mammoth sized beauty.
Jonathan contacted the old fire department from where the truck was retired. The following is the reply from the President of the Galena Volunteer Fire Department.
_____________________________________________________________
"We felt sad and depressed parting with our old brush truck; however, our district provide us with a Model 14 crew cab internation that has SCBA's and is well equipped for our wildland urban interface geography.
I personally drove and operated the truck on too many fires to count, from campaign fires as large as 49,000 acres to intial attack lightning strike starts.
Two incidents in which I bonded with the vehicle were on a fire near Virginia City in which the fire came roaring up a drainage, the chimney effect, and although we positioned ourselves away from the direct path the fire came right over the top of us and we used the truck as a shield with fog patterns on our nozzles, yes it was very close. I was operating the truck on a fire west of Reno with two young men who are now paramedic firefighters. We were engaged in pump and roll operations sidehill on the eastern flank of the fire to control the rate of spread when I heard air ops radio traffic which indicated a retardent drop was imminent from a heavy air tanker. We took shelter against the truck just as the heavy air tanker, a four engine aircraft carrying 2500 gallons came over the ridgeline right at us, I was on the radio communicating our position and the plane veered to the left of us dropping the retardent about 50 feet from the truck.
There are many more stories like this in the truck's past, the truck was known locally for its pumping capability with the 4 cylinder engine we used it to pump hoselays 1500 feet uphill for about eight hours.
In summary you have acquired a firefighting machine..........the truck is just outdated.Please snd me you address and I will be happy to mail you any pictures I may come across.Thanks!"
1 comment:
SO cool!! I bet the kids love it, too...how sweet is that? Dad and Mom own a fire truck!
Post a Comment