By Bill Adams

In “A History of LTI and Ephrata’s Ladder Trucks, Part 1” (December 2022), I explained how a concept conceived by a rural farm wagon builder evolved into a crane manufacturing company that later created a division fabricating aerial devices for the fire service.

The aerial division was purchased by Mahlon Zimmerman, renamed Ladder Towers Incorporated (LTI), and relocated to Ephrata, PA. Part 1 described LTI’s development as an influential player in the ladder truck market and its eventual purchase and renaming to Simon-LTI. Part 2 continues the story.

American LaFrance

In 1995, Freightliner purchased the defunct American LaFrance (ALF) assets ostensibly to build custom cabs and chassis for the fire service. Several years later, Freightliner’s ALF division suddenly, but not unexpectedly, returned to building complete apparatus by acquiring apparatus manufacturers (OEMs) RD Murray, 3D Manufacturing, Becker, Boardman, Medic Master, Rescue Master, and Southern Coach as well as component part manufacturer Aerial Innovations, Incorporated. Shortly thereafter, ALF purchased Simon-LTI. The aerial device employees on Cocalico Creek Road had another new owner.

The domestic Snorkel products including the Squrt and TeleSqurt lines have a convoluted history of owners originating with Pitman Manufacturing. All the lines ended up at the rejuvenated ALF either previously purchased by ALF’s former owner before it went out of business or purchased directly by Freightliner.

Tony Mastrobattista (Tony Mastro), an original employee of LTI and later Simon-LTI, says, “After ALF purchased Aerial Innovations, it purchased Simon-LTI and I stayed on with American LaFrance. My title was changed to national sales training manager-LTI division.”

The numerous apparatus acquisitions caused a great deal of apprehension in the fire truck industry and in Ephrata. The purchases provided ALF with three sources of aerial devices and multiple nationwide manufacturing facilities with trained workforces experienced in building fire apparatus. It provided an instant backlog of hundreds of “on-order” apparatus ranging from ambulances to ladder trucks. Overnight, it put ALF in the top tier of apparatus manufacturers. And ALF now controlled small apparatus OEMs’ access to aerial devices once supplied by Aerial Innovations and Simon-LTI.

Keith Purdy was ALF’s national marketing manager from around 2001 to 2009. Purdy: “The former Aerial Innovations product line was phased out and its plant in Lebanon was used to produce the ALF Silver Eagle, a stainless-steel aerial ladder that Aerial Innovations already had under development.” Purdy and Mastro say some of the purchased Snorkel, Squrt, and TeleSqurt product lines were also manufactured at both the former AI factory in Lebanon and the former LTI facility on Cocalico Creek Road (photo 1). The LTI plant continued building aerial devices with the LTI logo for ALF on the ALF chassis (photo 2).

ALF’s owner Freightliner was part of the Daimler corporation that later merged with Chrysler. Purdy was asked if it was difficult integrating a small, very experienced, and well-established manufacturing firm such as LTI into ALF—now just one small segment in a large multicorporation conglomerate. Purdy: “The LTI team on Cocalico Creek Road was so exceptionally experienced and talented that weaving them into the American LaFrance mold was not as critical as maintaining their freedom of decision making and market growth campaigns. To this end, even the national advertising of American LaFrance ladder and tower products in that time

Sutphen—Clay (NY) Volunteer Fire Department SL75 aerial ladder quint. Monarch cab and chassis; Cummins L9 450-hp engine; 75-foot mid-mount aerial ladder; Hale Qmax 1,750-gpm pump; 500-gallon polypropylene water tank; Harrison 8-kW generator. Dealer: Scott Leavery and Nick Catalino, Vander Molen Fire Apparatus Sales and Service, Syracuse, NY.

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The city of Minneapolis will enforce one-sided street parking starting Thursday on streets that aren’t snow emergency routes, FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Vince Richardson
Skagit Valley Herald, Mount Vernon, Wash.
(TNS)

Jan. 25—SEDRO-WOOLLEY — The delivery of two ambulances the Sedro-Woolley Fire Department ordered in 2021 has been delayed.

The ambulances were expected to arrive in 2022, but have yet to be built. The department is also waiting for a new brush truck it had ordered.

Sedro-Woolley Fire Chief Frank Wagner said the delays are due to a shortage in available chassis for the vehicles.

“We’ve been told the company is hoping to get those chassis delivered in a month or two,” he said.

The vehicles are certainly needed as the Sedro-Woolley department just logged its busiest month in history, and the ambulances and brush truck are at the end of their lifespans.

“We are crossing our fingers that hopefully by the second quarter of this year we will see them show up,” Wagner said. “The rigs we have now are a year behind (replacement) schedule and are spending a lot more time in the shop for preventative maintenance and upkeep than we normally have budgeted.”

Finding specialty vehicles such as ambulances on the used market is not easy.

“Honestly, you can’t even find them,” Wagner said. “So these agencies that suffer a catastrophe such as getting into a motor vehicle accident and they can’t fix them, well, they are trying to find these rigs on the used market. The demand is so high and the costs are way up.”

Wagner said that in 2021 he thought there could be difficulties in getting new vehicles.

“Well this is one time I wished I was wrong,” he said. “I was hoping someone — Ford, Chevy, Dodge — would come through and prove us all wrong and over deliver.”

A $1.1 million fire engine is on schedule to be delivered to the department in 2024 after an estimated 485-day build schedule.

— Reporter Vince Richardson: 360-416-2181, vrichardson@skagitpublishing.com. Twitter:@goskagit, Facebook.com/VinceRichardson/

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Voters at a special town meeting in Avon Tuesday night approved purchasing two new vehicles for the Avon Volunteer Fire Department, Patch.com reported.

There were two questions on the agenda, each one for a different vehicle that would be utilized by the AVFD, the report said.

In separate 126-1 votes, town meeting attendees approved bonding $1.259 million for a new pumper tanker truck and $2.172 million for a new ladder truck, according to the report.

The existing models currently being utilized by the AVFD are in excess of 20 years old and proponents say it is better to replace now than undertake expensive repairs and renovations for the older models, the report said.