Randy Flanagan was just a kid growing up in Charlottetown when he first saw the 1942 Bickle Seagrave fire engine in action. He didn't know then that one day he'd be a firefighter, and that he'd be putting in countless hours in his spare time to restore that bright red fire truck.
The Charlottetown Fire Department bought the Bickle back in 1942. But in 2003, the city determined the engine had past its prime and was just taking up space in the station. It was sold and re-sold a few times in Nova Scotia.
Flanagan didn't know about the sale until after the truck was gone.
"After all those years of watching it, and then seeing it go to Nova Scotia, I didn't think I'd ever see it again," he said.
And then, a few years ago, a colleague was leafing through a firefighting magazine when he spotted the old truck for sale in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. Flanagan and his colleagues drove over to Bridgewater to see it.
Flanagan said he wasn't sure at the time what work was needed to restore it.
"It was parked outside with a tent over it, so it was out in the winter elements," he said.
"It didn't run at the time, so we were not quite sure what we were getting."
But Flanagan decided to bargain for the old engine.