The above photograph is of the Vigilant Hose Company's fleet circa 1955, from left to right the 1950 Seagrave rural engine, 1950 Seagrave city quad and the 1953 International tank truck.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Firefighter’s Battle Second Barn Fire In Hours
On October 25, 1983 at 6:38 a.m. firefighters were sent to the Borough of Newburg for a barn fire. Over 150 firefighters manning 20 pieces of apparatus battled a barn fire for over five hours before bringing it under control. The barn was saved as firefighters worked all day to remove the burning hay. The fire was ruled arson along with another barn fire just three miles away and an hour earlier. A damage estimate was not available. The Vigilant Hose, Cumberland Valley Hose and West End Fire and Rescue companies assisted at the scene.
The above photograph is of the Vigilant Hose Company's fleet circa 1955, from left to right the 1950 Seagrave rural engine, 1950 Seagrave city quad and the 1953 International tank truck.
The above photograph is of the Vigilant Hose Company's fleet circa 1955, from left to right the 1950 Seagrave rural engine, 1950 Seagrave city quad and the 1953 International tank truck.
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14 comments:
Okay I have to admit this photograph and it's timing was by accident. In order to keep both blogs running and still have a life I have been preparing and uploading the post in advance. In the case of this site they have been done for a month.
In case you haven't been paying attention or have bad recall from previous post I will piont out to you the apparatus changes in the Viggies in a few short years. In December of 1949 they purchased their first tanker, in 1950 a new rural engine and a new borough rig and then in 1953 the tanker was replaced with this one.
For you engine guys get out your fingers and count along with me, that is 1, 2, 3, 4 new rigs in just over three years. Okay engine guys rest your tiny little brains now, I am sure that was hard work, LOL.
Brad,
sorry I missed you when your whe're in town yesterday,, I'm in the Correctional Officers Academy for three weeks in E-Town.
It must have be awesome in 1955.
Dumb question here, What's the difference between a rural engine and a city quad?? The engines look the same to me in the photo...
It does look the same from the front but not from any other angles. The "City" quad was much longer, it also had a 750 gpm pump and a water tank but it carried over 200' feet of fround ladder. Do you know any trucks around that carry that many ground ladders know? It is referred to as "City" by me because it was purchased by the borough and ran only in the borough, hence the other rig being called the rural pumper. There is also no tail board on the quad everyone road on the running boards.
Hey Brad,
Since I rode all three of them, get a side view of the Quad and put it up. Alot of you readers where not born yet when this picture was taken. I still love the tanker, that sucker fought a lot of fire over the years.
C.W.
Brad what ever happned to the Quad? I know a guy in cambria county who had owned it and still had some odds and ends parts of it in with all of his ALF's. Cressler
Bob, the answer is in the comments on 10-22-08's post.
That Tanker, all 1000 gallons worth, was fast and responded first with who was available quickly. Most of its drivers were awfully good at it and they were the instant fireground managers unless someone felt like arguing with Bitner, Murray Sr., Orris, etc. The concept stopped a lot of loss.
RB
Two bays, how did they get three fire engines into the building. This was before the annex, right? I do remember the City quad. That and WEFR's old Squad was the two best rigs in Ship.
C.W. I will post the side view of the Quad in the future, I am holding off for the detailed history of the rig.
Sparky, the Quad is sitting in front of the bay it was parked in, the bay closest to Prince Street housed the rural engine and tanker. If you look at old photos the two Seagraves are always the ones you see, but the tanker was in front of the engine. It ran out first on everything in the rural area back then and really up into the 70's.
The annex did not come along until almost 20 years after this photograph.
Does this make you wonder if maybe we all have to many rigs these days. These two rural rigs would go out with 20 to 30 men on board, now you don't get that with the 10 to 12 rigs coming on the box. Do we really need more apparatus or more people?
20 to 30 each rig???? Wow...I honestly never heard of a rig taking that many people before...
Woody, 20 to 30 between the two rigs, not on each rig.
Gotcha Buddy...
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