Steve Burger lives just four blocks from Smeal Fire Apparatus Co., but he and his 21-year-old son hop into their old beater and drive to work together five days a week. Like so many others around here, working at Smeal is practically in their blood, and they have no problem spending almost every hour of the day together.
Like so many others around here, working at Smeal is practically in their blood, and they have no problem spending almost every hour of the day together.
Burger has worked at the plant that makes fire trucks for 15 years. His brother works there, too. And his son, Chris, has been at the plant since he graduated.
“I just figured I’d get a good job right outside of high school and got comfy,” Chris Burger said.
The Smeal plant sits on the western edge of this village of 298 not far from Fremont, and it employs more people than that -- 313 on a given weekday -- in jobs ranging from the front offices to the production lines working on 45 to 60 firetrucks at a time.