Joey Oliver
mlive.com
(TNS)

BANGOR TWP, MI – One of mid-Michigan’s hidden gems reopened this month, allowing visitors to step back in time through its plethora of firehouse memorabilia and antique toys.

The Antique Toy and Firehouse Museum opened for the season Saturday, May 3, in Bay County. The museum features one of the world’s largest collections of toy trucks, many of which feature first responder vehicles.

The museum also has a surplus of fire trucks, including everything from horse-drawn apparatuses to Model Ts to more modern vehicles, such as the Bangor Township Telesquirt. The collection includes fire and first responder gems from Bay City, around the Saginaw River, Midland, Detroit and more.

Bangor Township’s Antique Toy and Firehouse Museum was created by founder Jimmie Dobson to preserve the history of mid-Michigan fire service and has grown by curating thousands of antique toys and fire equipment. The museum currently boasts more than 60 firefighting apparatus dating back to 1854, and more than 15,000 antique toys.

The museum also has a room dedicated to the Saginaw River Marine Historical Society, with an exhibit dedicated to Jupiter, a tanker that caught fire and exploded in September 1990 while unloading gasoline in the Saginaw River.

Where

3456 Patterson Road in Bay County’s Bangor Township

When

The museum’s seasonal hours extend from May to October. The museum is open from noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Other visits are permitted by calling ahead. Group tours can also be coordinated by calling ahead.

Admission fees

Admission into the museum is $10 per adult and $7 for seniors and students up to 17 years old. Children 4 and under can get into the museum for free.

Learn more

For more information, visit the museum’s website at toyandfirehousemuseum.org. Those interested can also call 1-888-888-1270 or email info@toyandfirehousemuseum.org.

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The post MI’s Antique Toy and Firehouse Museum has Everything from Horse-Drawn Apparatus to a Telesquirt appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.

The city of Westfield, Indiana, sits 20 miles north of Indianapolis in Hamilton County and is considered a suburb of the metropolitan area. The Westfield Fire Department was first established in 1904 when the town voted to purchase a hand-drawn chemical engine for the community. Today, the department is operating out of three stations, providing fire protection and emergency medical services (EMS) for more than 56 square miles within Washington Township and the incorporated areas of Westfield.

The department has 97 shift members operating in three battalions. The department runs three engine companies, a ladder company, three ambulances, three battalion chiefs, and three field resource paramedics. All department members are trained to the emergency medical technician basic level, and nearly a third are trained to the paramedic level. The department is also trained to handle a wide variety of specialized incidents involving hazmat, confined space rescue, trench rescue, building collapse, high-angle rope rescue, and water rescues. In addition to these emergency service calls, the department also provides community outreach programs, fire inspections, and fire prevention services.

Engine Company 382 is currently assigned a 2023 Pierce Enforcer with an aluminum body equipped with AMDOR roll-up compartment doors. The rig serves as a rescue-engine carrying medical equipment as well as vehicle extrication tools. It is powered by a Cummins 450-horsepower (hp) L9 engine and has an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission. It is also equipped with a New York style 750-gallon water tank, an L-shaped tank with a low hosebed, which serves the Waterous 1,500-gallon-per-minute (gpm) pump. The pumphouse is 45 inches wide.

The unit is painted traditional red with three black reflective stripes running along the lower portion of the cab. These stripes then transition upward on the driver’s-side high compartments towards the rear. Above the high-side compartments is outside storage for hard suction hose for drafting operations. The officer’s side has lower-side compartments with portable ladder storage above it, which includes 28-foot two-section extension, 16-foot roof, and 10-foot folding Duo Safety ladders.

The cab has seating for four firefighters with three interior compartments for medical and swiftwater rescue equipment. It features Retrac remote controlled heated mirrors with convex sections to assist the driver in operating the vehicle in harsh conditions. It also has shoreline power and auto-disconnect through the Kussmaul connection on the cab just behind the driver.

Sitting in front of the cab is a 26-inch stainless steel extended bumper with a chrome 5-inch swivel intake pipe. The front bumper has two recessed Grover air horns and two Whelen grilled speakers mounted in it. On top of the bumper sits a Federal Q2B siren. There are also two hose troughs in the bumper, one for 20 feet of 5-inch suction hose and a larger section which holds 150 feet of 1¾-inch hose.

Hose storage is also available in two crosslay troughs behind the crew cab. The rear storage bed has five storage areas separated by dividing walls. These separate the following hose sections of two 300-foot beds of 1¾-inch, one bed of 750-feet of 5-inch supply line, 200-feet of 3-inch attack line with a portable monitor preattached, and one bed of 2½-inch attack line. For additional fire attack tactics, there is a prepiped monitor above the pump panel.

The rig boasts an assortment of Whelen warning and scene lighting. On the cab is a Freedom IV LED lightbar and on the cab’s front brow sits a Pioneer LED scene visor light. At the rear and upper sides of the rig sit two Whelen Rota Beam lights and a Whelen TAL 65 LED traffic light for warning traffic at emergency scenes. The rear end also has Whelen vertical LED cluster lights, which serve as directional, warning, backup, and emergency lighting. Mounted

The Maui Fire Department received a donation of a wildland fire apparatus and placed it into service recently with a blessing ceremony held at the Kahului Fire Station, the department said in a Facebook post.

“This is the first of a total of six wildland fire apparatus that will supplement the capabilities of the department’s current wildland vehicles to help protect our community,” the post said. “These vehicles are being donated by the Daniel R Sayre Memorial Foundation in concert with the Hawaii Community Foundation with matching donations from the Bezos Family Foundation.”

Members of the Sayre foundation and other dignitaries were on hand for the blessing, giving the department the opportunity to express its gratitude for the generous donation.

The post Maui (HI) FD Places First of Six Donated Wildland Fire Apparatus Into Service appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.

The Kansas City firefighter who drove the pumper in a December 2021 traffic crash in Westport that killed three people and cost taxpayers more than $3 million in damages could receive $915,000 from the city to settle a grievance case filed on his behalf by his union, kansascity.com reported.

According to the agenda for its regular meeting Thursday, May 8, the city council was set to consider approving the settlement, which would appear to end two years of litigation between the firefighters union and the city that began when the fire department suspended Dominic Biscari without pay and announced its intention to fire him, the report said.

The department announced the disciplinary actions when Biscari pleaded guilty in February 2023 to three counts of involuntary manslaughter, according to the report. Biscari got three years probation and was ordered to perform 40 hours of community service, the report said.

The firefighters union, International Association of Firefighters, Local 42, filed a grievance to block Biscari’s termination soon after that guilty plea, according to the report.

The grievance process led to a hearing before an arbitrator last year and then a lawsuit that the city will most likely drop as part of the settlement, the report said.

The agenda item provides few details of the settlement, other than it would resolve the grievance and arbitration cases, as well as “a Workers’ Compensation benefit filed by the employee for injuries resulting from an accident while employed by the City.”

It does not say whether Biscari will be allowed to keep his job at the fire department.

Here is a link to the agenda. For more on this story, please go to kansascity.com.

The post Kansas City (MO) FD Pumper Driver Could Get $915K Payout After Crash Killed Three appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.