I work just outside coatesville, and drive past the sadsburyville Vol. fire company almost daily. This is a small fire company that has grown very quickly due to the population boom in the area. They were also very suportive when i worked at Sikorsky, as we were required to have the fire company on site for standby for initial startup of the production aircraft (until sikorsky added a fire truck to the plant)
anyway, as i was driving through the other day, i realized something new on the property. It was Jeep-looking, and red. Could it be an old Jeep brush truck? Where did it come from? what are their plans for it.....So i reached out to find out and this is the response i got.
If anyone is willing to take a look, or possibly make a club project out of this, in support of a local fire community, i think it would be awesome. I am most likely going to stop by one day and take a look at it (and snag the geocache in their parking lot) I know frame repairs are common these days, with aftermarket support. Im wondering if maybe one of the vendors would be willing to donate the parts, and a member do the welding, to keep this piece of history on the road.
The jeep is a 1973 CJ7 that we purchased in 1980. It replaced a 1950's era Willys jeep that was also "home grown". The unit was fitted with a large homemade front grille guard and a homemade 50 gallon tank. The pump was a fire house "engineered" unit attached to a briggs/stratton engine off of a lawn mower. We had very little money at the time but a couple of very mechanically gifted members. The jeep had red lights, siren and radios installed and was then placed into service as a brush unit. It was known as Brush 31
It was not much to look at as we were not very careful with it when off the road. I can't tell you how many times the side marker lights had to be replaced and the fenders straightened out after a fire call. It was well respected in the area because of our willingness to go into any terrain with it. Several other companies had new jeeps that were very "pretty" but they were not willing to go some places with it. I personally know of at least two occasions where it was rolled onto its side while on a call, rolled back onto its wheels and continued the fight.
It served us well for the next 25 yrs until at its last inspection we were told that the frame was too rusted and it would not pass. We have since been told that this is not accurate and that only small repairs need to be made.
Since then it was in storage at a members barn that while we tried to figure out what to do with it. While there the barn was destroyed in a fire last year but amazingly the jeep got only wet. We had it towed back to the station which is where it sits now.
If you have someone that is willing to come out to take a look at it we would be very appreciative of this. We would like an expert opinion on the status of the frame
Thanks for your interest
David M. Reynolds
Assistant Fire Chief
dmrfpc@aol.com
