Over the next two years, a team of 14 apprentices will spend every Thursday working on the fire engine, returning it to full working order.

It will then return to Burghley House, where it had been in storage, and will go on public display as an important part of the town’s heritage – and to inspire other young people to consider a career in engineering.

John Searle, 21, who is currently in the second year of a four-year apprenticeship, said: “Back in 2014, Burghley House approached Cummins and asked if the apprentices would be interested in restoring a 1957 Ransomes tractor which was totally rebuilt. That was so successful that, this year, Burghley asked if we would be take on a much bigger, more complex task.

“We arranged for the fire engine to be delivered to us on the back on a truck. Now it’s in the workshop we have begun the complex process of taking it apart, photographing and cataloguing all the parts and working out what needs fixing or replacing.”

The apprentices have been tasked with completing the work with limited supervision. They have spent hours researching Merryweather fire engines in the library and online, looking for information on their design and construction.

The department has been served by "old ladder one" for nearly 30 years, purchasing it in late 1986 for $249,800. The 80-foot truck was originally purchased for use in Corinth, Miss., and when it was delivered it didn't fit, said Capt. Tommy Dunavant in his speech about the truck's history. 
The old truck was first used on a mutual aid call in downtown Mason, helping to extinguish a blaze on Main Street, and three years later it was a fixture during the Hatchie River bridge collapse.

Dunavant, who was a firefighter when the old truck was dedicated, recounted many memories of calls he ran with it, from the time Glen Travis jumped out of it to make sure it'd fit under the Main Street bridge to 30 Christmas parades with Santa.

"I remember one time we had a suicidal party who'd climbed up the water tower," he said. "He'd just come across tough times and we used the truck to go up there and rescue him."

In 2014, then-chief Jerry Craig told city leaders it needed replacement and applied for the grant that eventually helped pay for it.

"You have to understand this is a 30-year-old piece of equipment behind me," said chief Michael Naifeh Monday. "It's served the city well, but it was time for an upgrade."

Members of the engineering firm visited the site on March 7. The station was built between 1907 and 1908.

“This investigation revealed a unique reinforcement layout that is not consistent with conventional practices,” the report says. “In order to confirm the reinforcement layout and observe its condition, a section of the slab concrete located away from an apparatus bay was saw-cut and chipped out. “

The report says that some of the steel was missing.

“During the course of the concrete chipping, it was noted that there were significant voids between aggregates due to water infiltration, and the concrete’s resistance to chipping was markedly low,” the report says. “With the reinforcing bars revealed, it could be seen that the steel had undergone significant section loss. ... These deficiencies were observed away from apparatus bays, in a location not subject to periodic wash-downs.”

However, the report says, the significant loss of steel is probably throughout the entire floor.

“We expect that these deficiencies would be more severe in the sections of slab that have been exposed to frequent wash-downs and de-icing salts,” the report says.

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