By Ron Heal

Back in the early 1970s, I saw a TV commercial for Mr. Coffee that featured New York Yankee great Joe DiMaggio. Also featured in that commercial was a group of firefighters retuning to quarters and backing their rig into the fire station before heading for a cup of coffee. The rig being returned to quarters was a 1928 American LaFrance (ALF) Type 31 65-foot wooden aerial ladder, complete with a tiller steering wheel. What an amazing piece of vintage fire apparatus, and it was only fifty miles from where I lived. It was the main and only piece of aerial fire apparatus at the La Salle (IL) Fire Department.

At that time, I considered myself to be a somewhat serious fire apparatus photographer and had visited several fire stations in Illinois and the midwest. Vintage fire apparatus has been my favorite fire apparatus most of my life, and American LaFrance was a major player when it came to vintage rigs.

A trip to La Salle was moved to the top of the list with the hope of getting some quality 35-mm Kodak slide pictures of the rig posed on the ramp of the fire station. The slides would be shared with fellow apparatus photographers in a slide trading group. La Salle is a city of approximately 10,000. The fire station was in the city hall. There were two apparatus bays. On one side were two ALF 700 series pumpers. In the other bay sat the ’28 ALF aerial ladder. The fire department was a combination of paid and volunteer firefighters with one paid firefighter on duty for a 24-hour shift. The paid firefighter would respond to a call with the apparatus with the volunteers meeting at the scene.

Arriving at the fire station, I met firefighter Don Pittman. I explained my learning about the aerial from the TV commercial and learned that Don was one of the firefighters in that commercial. After looking over the aerial, I asked Don if there was a chance to get some good pictures of the rig out on the ramp. Don said that could happen if I would guide the back of the rig from the tiller position into a slot cut into the back wall of the station after the photo shoot. The total length of the aerial ladder required that modification to squeeze the rig into the building and close the doors. This was my first opportunity to tiller a rig and it would be a long time before another opportunity would come along. I did get some great pictures. One of them is featured in this article. That meeting with Don and the opportunity to tiller the truck is a special memory that is still mine today.

There would be other times when I would stop by the La Salle Fire Department just to keep up and at other times introduce fellow fire buffs to the unique aerial. Over the years that followed the vintage aerial has made several moves but has never left the control and ownership of the fire department.

The 1928 American LaFrance Type 31 aerial was purchased new with a price tag of $15,250.00. The rig carries the production number 479. The main section of the wooden aerial was spring hoisted. Then hand cranking would run out the fly section. The amazing thing about this rig is that it remained in front line service as the only aerial ladder in