|
|
 |
|
Featured Rig
November-December 2003
1971 Crown Firecoach
Aerial Ladder Truck
Original Owner: Arcata (CA) Volunteer Fire
Department
Manufacturer: Crown Coach, Los Angeles, CA
Model:
Firecoach Aerial (CF-100-54)
Year: 1971
Serial No.:
F1663
Powerplant: International 549ci gasoline
Transmission: Allison
6 speed automatic
Aerial: 100' Maxim, four-section, midship
mounted
This aerial ladder
truck served the Arcata, California, Fire
Department
from 1971 to 2002, as Truck 3. It was one of only seven midship-mounted
ladder trucks that Crown produced. The aerial was built by Maxim, and
has the distinction of having a four section ladder, instead of the
normal three-section, so that the truck would be shorter to fit inside
the Arcata headquarters station. In 1993, the rig was repowered with a
549 c.i. International Harvester like the original. When retired from
first-line service, it had 8,709 original miles and 163.4 hours on the
ladder hydraulic pump. In January 2003, the truck was acquired by CFE
member Darrell Gilbert, complete with ground ladders, ladder pipe, pike
poles and axes. It is now part of the newly formed California Fire Museum in Orange County, CA.
(Click on photos to see bigger images)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Above,
right and left side views of Crown S/N F1663 in front of the
Arcata headquarters fire station. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
Above left, early 1980s photo with the units
of the Arcata FD in front of the headquarters station. Crown
ladder truck is in center. Above right, the Crown with some of
Arcata's rigs in the late 1990s.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
Above left and right, the Crown ladder truck
working at a fire in the Arcata business district in the early
1980s. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
Above left, an Arcata firefighter prepares to
set up the aerial at a working dawn fire. Above right, with the
stick up in the air at an early morning fire at a hardware store
on February 10, 1990. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
1978 photo shows the aerial partially raised
in front of one of Arcata's Victorian homes. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Above left and right, ladder pipe
operations at a fully invovled building fire at the Arcata
airport. Unlike modern aerial trucks, there is no remote on the
Crown - a firefighter must climb the ladder to direct the
stream. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Left and right above, July 26, 2001,
the Crown ladder truck operates a yet another major fire in
downtown Arcta, which destroyed there buildings, including a
histroic 1880s former theater. Read the article and view the image
gallery at the website of the ArcataEye "America's most popular
and obscure small town newspaper." |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
Above
left, in line for the apparatus parade at the CFE Pump-In at the
Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, CA, April 27, 2003. Above
right, on display at the California State Firefighters Association
Convention, September 13-16, Costa Mesa,
CA. |
|
| |
|
