Lee's retired Streator Fire Department pumper truck served Streator from Dec. 5, 1973, until May 1, 2008. Upon its retirement, Lee — whose father was a captain on the SFD , leading to his son's fascination with the discipline and tools of fighting fires — purchased the truck and began restoring it into the beautiful piece of equipment he was showing off at Northpoint Plaza during Streator's Fourth of July celebration.

"My dad is 87 years old, still alive, a retired captain of the Streator Fire Department. I'm very proud of that, and his white helmet is in the truck, the one he wore when he worked out of this truck," said Lee back in July.

"I always liked this truck. This was Streator's first diesel-powered fire engine with an automatic transmission. It had a 1,250-gallon-per-minute water tank, and it was state-of-the-art. This was the Cadillac of fire trucks in the 1970s."