By BILL ADAMS

In Niagara Falls, New York, about three miles from the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge to Canada, sits a six-bay brick fire station. On a busy day, passersby could be surprised to see several pumpers, maybe an aerial or two, a heavy rescue, and a flock of police cars and chiefs’ cars.

They’d be more surprised if they noticed the different names on the rigs and cars. It’s not a major mutual-aid incident. The 13,000-square-foot fire station, formerly the home of the Town of Niagara Active Hose Company, is the office and service shop for the local Rosenbauer America dealer: Empire Emergency Apparatus, Incorporated.

Owned by Mike and Kathy McLaughlin, Empire was incorporated in New York State in 2006. Mike’s firematic experience includes service as a volunteer in Tonawanda’s Union Hook and Ladder Company and in the North Tonawanda Gratwick Hose Company. His experience in the emergency equipment industry began as a division manager for a local dealership that represented a national apparatus manufacturer (OEM), then as the fleet manager for a private ambulance company in Erie County. He served as the service manager for the American LaFrance manufacturing facility located in the metropolitan Buffalo area and later as its sales manager. “When it appeared American LaFrance’s downward spiral was going to be nonstop, Kathy and I decided the time was right to consider opening our own business,” says Mike McLaughlin.

He continues, “I grew tired of always being at the hands of someone else who just couldn’t understand the market in western New York. I felt we needed a new approach to sales. Mine was ‘Service Sells.’ If we service our customers, we sell our customers. It is a pretty simple thought process, and I have proved it works. We started this business in one of the worst economies since the great depression. Most people thought I was crazy to do it, but Kathy and I believed we could succeed with treating our employees and customers right. When we began, we were all fire apparatus and little of anything else. However, the fire apparatus market began to drop, and sales went from about 5,200 pieces a year to around 3,000. There were the same number of dealers and manufacturers, so we had to change some things to stay viable.”

Upfitting and Outfitting

Mike McLaughin says, “Empire entered into the ‘upfit’ (synonymous with ‘outfit’) market, which proved to be a very strong, positive move for us. We do custom installations of warning lights, radio modules, rear equipment modules, slide-trays, and graphics. Modules are custom-built in-house or outsourced to specialty manufacturers. We began outfitting fire chiefs’ vehicles and graduated into the law enforcement arena, which has truly become a core business with us. Having direct manufacturing experience as well as being a trained mechanic allows me to better understand the build process and assists the customers in making more intelligent decisions to give them the highest quality vehicle they can specify. We enjoy relationships throughout New York State including work for the FDNY and NYPD and have started branching out to other states. We do supply some loose equipment but have found that the market for that type of goods is very competitive and requires a large amount of energy for very little profit.”