Apparatus History

Our fire company has had many different apparatus since our establishment in 1948.  Our first apparatus was a 1926 American Lafrance pumper donated to us by the Keystone Steam Fire Engine Company of Boyertown.  This piece was used until a 1955 Ford chassis was purchased for use as a pumper.  The truck was sent to the Boyertown Body Works to have a pump, tank and body put on it.  The engine from the 1926 American Lafrance was used as the pump motor in the new Ford.   The 1955 Ford saw service from 1955 until it was replaced as our main attack engine in 1985 by a Ford/Pierce pumper of the same age.  The 55' saw intermittent service until it was ultimately retired in 1998 when we purchased our 1998 Pierce Dash Pumper.  The 55' was donated to the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles in 2009.  Other engines purchased by the company was a 2001 Pierce Saber, retired in 2015, a 2010 Pierce Arrow, a 2015 Pierce Saber and most recently a 2019 Ford F550 mini Pumper.

The company purchased quite a few Tankers over the years.  We operated 2 tankers at one time in the 70's and 80's.  One of those tankers was a 1969 International with a steel elliptical tank and a 500gpm pump.  At the time, not many tankers has pumps and was referred to locally as the "Super Tanker".   This unit was in service until 1990 when a 2500 gallon Pierce Lance Tanker was purchased.  The 1990 saw service until 2005 when it was replaced by a 2005 Pierce Dash 2500 gallon tanker. The benefits of this new tanker was a fully enclosed cab, the addition of automatic side dumping capabilities and a motorized dump tank lift among other things.  The 2005 was replaced in October 2022 with a 2022 Pierce Enforcer, 3000g tanker.  The 2022 has an additional 500 gallons over the 2005 and ladders were added to this tanker due to the change in apparatus type from the 2010 Engine to the 2019 Attack.

One of the first brush vehicles purchased was a 1973 AMC Jeep J4000 pick-up truck from a Jeep Dealer in Bechtelsville.  The truck was equipped with a skid tank and pump as well as multiple hand tools.  The truck was in service alone until a second brush unit was purchased from Quigley Chevrolet in 1995.  This was a Chevrolet 2500 Diesel with a custom body, skid unit and pump and multiple hand tools.  The 1973 was then placed as "second out" brush unit when required.  There was also a short time where a 1980's Dodge was placed at our station by the PA State Forestry, this unit was returned to them in the early 2000's.  The 1973 Jeep had a few upgrades over the years, large leaf springs and larger wheels and tires to give it a little lift.  The original skit unit was sold to the Mt. Penn Fire Company and a new Skid Pump and tank was placed onto it.  The 73' saw service until 2008 where it was put up for auction as just a pick-up truck.  It was sold to a gentleman and Jeep collector from Coopersburg.  The 73' was sold with just over 18,000 original miles!!  The 95' Chevy was our first out truck for all brush fires until 2008 when it was sold to the Union Fire Company of Bethel, Pa where it is still in service today.  Both the 73' and 95' brush trucks were replace with 2008 Ford F-350's.  One Ford is a 2 door with a custom body and the other is a 4 door which is equipped with the skid unit from the 73' Jeep. The 4-Door F-350 was damaged in an accident in March of 2019 and was replaced by a 2019 F-250 4-door.  Originally, the skid-unit from the 2008 was installed on the 2019 F-250, but in early 2022, a new skid-unit was installed on the truck.  The 2008 2-door and the 2019 4-door are still in-service today.

With the rough terrain of Earl Township and the ever growing population, the company purchased a Polaris Ranger 6x6 in 2011.  ATV-19, as it's designated, was equipped with a small tank and pump that can also hold a back board for patient removal from hard access areas.  The ATV has seen it's share of calls since being placed into service, from a 740 acre forest fire in Union Township to Hurricane Sandy which took a large amount of trees down in the township.  The ATV has been on many, many brush fires and continues to prove its worth today!

Click below to see our "Current" in-service apparatus and our "Past Apparatus" listed above.

Current Apparatus     |     Past Apparatus