Years ago, ALF demonstrators would have ‘AFD’ painted on the doors, which stood for ‘Anytown Fire Department.’ Many towns bought these popular rigs. So they were plentiful then, and there are still some ALFs in both cities. It was an American LaFrance pumper, complete with a heavy steering wheel and spoked wheels that the firefighter placed me on! My hometown of Bayonne, New Jersey, had some ALF apparatus, as did Jersey City to our north. I was about four years old when my mom took me to the firehouse across the street from the grammar school that I would eventually attend. John Malecky, Fire Engineering‘s Apparatus Deliveries author, offers some personal reminiscences of American LaFrance apparatus.
American lafrance archives series#
HERE we offer series of old ALF advertisements as they appeared in The Fireman’s Journal in 1880 in Fire and Water in 1905 and in Fire Engineering in 1926, 1943, 1960, 1982, 2002, and 2006. Below, John Malecky shares his memories of ALF apparatus, and Walt McCall offers a summary of the venerable manufacturer’s history. HERE, you can see both a visual history of the company’s products and the evolution of its fire apparatus. A performance of this scope would tax the capability of a modern engine.After more than 100 years in business, American LaFrance (ALF) announced it was going out of business on January 17, 2014, ending its long history as a fire apparatus manufacturer. His Type 12 drafted water from a murky tailings pond and pumped it over 1,000 feet to the seat of the fire. In its advertisements La France printed a letter from a fire chief in Alaska who had pumped his Model 12 at a mine fire for three days in freezing temperatures, stopping only to change engine oil and replace broken sections of hose. American La France built its own engines because commercial truck engines usually lacked the torque and the endurance to drive a stationary 1000 gpm fire pump for hours at a time without overheating or damaging pistons, connecting rods and valves.
It used a 1,000 gallon per minute rotary gear pump driven by a six cylinder engine that generated well over 100 horsepower and a considerable amount of torque, the twisting power that really defines an engine’s capabilities. Getz, the rig was restored in 1991 by Don Hale to its 1955 appearance rather than its appearance when it was shipped by American La France in 1924.Īmerican La France was the nation’s largest maker of custom apparatus in the 1920s, and the Type 12 was probably its most popular model with city fire departments. Sometime during its career it was repainted, its chemical tank was replaced with a water tank, and its hard rubber tires were replaced by pneumatic tires. 1” because it was the first object in the collection, the pumper was used by the fire department of Oshkosh, Wisconsin until the 1950s. His grandson, also named George, is now the museum’s president.Ĭalled “No. Today the Hall is the nation’s largest firefighting museum. He began the National Historical Fire Foundation, which supports the Hall of Flame. He soon became an enthusiastic collector of fire apparatus and memorabilia. He had expressed a casual interest a few months earlier to own a vintage fire engine for giving rides to children at their Lake Geneva, Wisconsin home. received it as a Christmas present in 1955 from his wife, Olive and his son Bert. This engine marks the beginning of the Hall of Flame.
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