Batallion Chief Jamie Bigelow said, "Murfreesboro is booming, we have a lot of apartments that are multi-stories now. This 100 foot ladder truck will help us with any emergency we have, especially fires."  

Along with a new fire truck, the fire hall now has a new home on Medical Center Parkway.

Captain Gary Hutchinson said, "We were on the west side of the city, which if we had to go across the city for whatever reason, it was just longer response time."

“I think it was a little poignant,” said Danny Coolahan, a fire apparatus driver and 22-year veteran of the station.  

Coolahan, an Arbutus resident and the member of the station largely responsible for organizing the celebration, said a lifelong interest in “old things” is what led him to learn the history of the station. He has also collected and compiled a history of the Halethorpe station.  

Station No. 5, situated at 4501 Washington Blvd., is one of 25 career stations fully funded by Baltimore County, which is also home to nearly 30 volunteer stations. The latter receive financial support from the county but are funded largely through donations and other fundraising efforts.

City Manager Tim Ogden has included the $350,000 vehicle as part of a spending plan for the fiscal year starting July 1.  

It will be purchased using the public safety endowment fund created from $7,000 a pop paid when building permits were issued for the Del Webb and Union Ranch neighborhoods in north Manteca. The fund also will pay for a $600,000 replacement fire engine, a $58,000 non-emergency fire vehicle, and a $44,000 police motorcycle.

"We have pumpers, we have the ladder trucks. We have a couple tankers," said Pete West, a member of the Old Dominion Antique Fire club. "And then we have some brush trucks which are typically jeeps or Broncos or smaller pickup trucks with a smaller pump and small water on them which are light enough to get out into the field or into the woods."  

While the antique vehicles are at least 25 years old, many are older and simply stayed in commission for decades.

For Pikesville volunteer firefighter Joseph D'antoni, his connection with the antique truck he brought to the rodeo is personal. It was the first fire truck he ever rode.