By Michael N. Ciampo

The Montgomery Volunteer Fire Company 1 is located in Belle Mead, New Jersey, a hamlet of Montgomery Township, in Somerset County. The department was founded in 1939 and originally operated out of the Belle Mead Garage. The area long ago was inhabited by the Leni Lenape Indians and then became rural farmland when English and Dutch settlers began migrating to the area in the late 1700s after the Revolutionary War. Today the area is mostly residential with older homes and newer lightweight construction homes, condominiums, and townhomes along with industrial and commercial sections gracing its landscape.

The department is known as Station 45 and covers 32 square miles out of its modern drive-through four-bay firehouse. The firehouse is currently the company’s third location, with many modern amenities such as a training room, company officer offices, and fitness and locker room. It sits just off State Highway Route 206 on Griggstown Road. The town is covered by two stations that run as separate departments but run numerous calls and train together often. The department’s original rig was a 1930 Childs pumper purchased for $300 from the New Egypt (NJ) Fire Department, a far cry from today’s modern apparatus at Station 45. Today Station 45’s fleet includes a 2010 Pierce Velocity Rescue Pumper and a 2003 E-ONE Typhoon Pumper—a 1999 E-ONE 105-foot Hurricane Platform (soon to be replaced), a 2007 Pierce Mack 3,000-gallon tanker, a 2005 Ford Brush Fire Unit, 2016 and 2009 Chevrolet Tahoe chief vehicles, a 1984 Military five-ton high-water-rescue vehicle, and an inflatable 12-foot Avon rescue boat with 20-hp engine. The department also maintains a 1966 Maxim engine for parades and community events.

Rescue 45 is a 2015 Pierce Velocity nonwalk-in PUC rescue-pumper. Its paint scheme is a little unusual with its cab partially painted in white (sides only) and the rest of the rig painted red. The entire rig has a white reflective stripe running around the lower portion of the cab and body. The rear of the rig has the safety chevron design. It’s powered by a 500-hp Cummins engine with an Allison 5^th Generation transmission and features TAK 4 Suspension. The rig also has a Harrison 15-kW generator and Husky 3 Foam System with 30-gallon tanks of Class A and B Foam. There is also an air cascade system on the rig to fill breathing air cylinders. The rescue body has all roll-up compartment doors which make tool and equipment retrieval much easier. It also has coffin compartments on its upper section with access via the ladder on the rear of the body. The engine has a 1,500-gpm pump, carries 400 gallons of water in its tank, and has 300 feet of 1¾-, 200 feet of 2½-, and 175 feet of 5-inch hose. The department prides itself in making this apparatus work for it at the numerous car accidents that it responds to. With today’s upgrades in the steel—such as boron used in car construction and reinforced areas on a car—the department set the rig up with low- and high-pressure extrication tools. The front bumper extrication compartment allows crews to nose up to an accident and get to work quickly while using the apparatus to block the scene and create a safety margin for their firefighters operating.

On the front bumper, the members created more storage by mounting small hand tools onto the inner section of the compartment’s lid. Here they have quick access to a seat belt cutter, windshie

By Ron Heal

During the 1950s and through the 1960s FWD tractor-drawn aerials (TDAs) were familiar pieces of fire apparatus responding to fires in the city of Chicago, Illinois. The Chicago Fire Department placed orders for a total of 25 of these rigs in 1949, 1954, and 1956. These TDAs featured 85-foot wooden two-section ladders and full complements of ground ladders. The main section of the ladder was spring-raised. The fly section was extended by a hand crank and roller system. The turntable was also rotated by hand cranks. A full complement of solid beam wood ground ladders included a 50-foot Bangor ladder with supporting tormenter poles; two 38-foot extension ladders; one each 30-,26-, 20-, and 16-foot straight ladders; a 16-, 12-, 10-, and eight-foot roof ladder; two 16-foot pompier ladders; and a 10-foot stripping ladder. The trucks also carried six axes and as many as sixteen pike poles. The aerial ladder truck tractors were powered by Waukesha model 145 GKB 240-hp gas engines. By the late 1960s Chicago was moving toward rear-mount steel aerials. One by one the retired FWD units found their way to the “boneyard” at the Chicago Fire Department shops at 3100 W. 31^st Street in Chicago. Here the fate of aging fire apparatus would be determined over a period of time. Often the shops personnel would remove components that could be used on repairs to in-service apparatus. From time to time, the city would conduct a sealed bid sale to reduce the number of units in the boneyard. That was what happened in 1977 when a young Roman Catholic priest, Father Tom Franzman, learned that five of the long-retired FWD TDA rigs would be sold.

Father Franzman was ordained in 1970. His first assignment was to Fox Lake, Illinois. Early in his time in Fox Lake, Father Tom was given the opportunity to be the chaplain for the Fox Lake Fire Department. While Father Tom was in seminary at Mundelein, Illinois, he had served on the seminary fire brigade. There they had the use of a 1949 International/Darley pumper purchased from the Countryside Fire Protection District. The brigade would respond to grass fires on the seminary property. Father Tom had always been interested in anything mechanical. That extended to the care and operation of the International/Darley. The brigade also practiced with the Mundelein Fire Department. The chaplain duties with Fox Lake Fire Department lasted for seven years. In 1978 Father Tom was assigned to the Cathedral in Chicago, where he would serve until 1990. During that time Father Tom met and got to know many members of the Chicago Fire Department.

1977 would be a time when Father Tom and a vintage 1954 FWD TDA would connect. The Chicago Fire Department was selling five of the vintage aerial ladder trucks in “as-is” condition. Father Tom had visited the “boneyard” and found one combination that was more complete than some of the other units. He had no idea what to bid. He heard that often the old rigs would be run over the scales and sold for scrap for a mere $50.00. With this knowledge, Father Tom submitted a sealed bid. His bid of $75.00 awarded him Truck 8’s tractor and Truck 53’s trailer!

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