A Pierce ladder truck once ran at Dulles. It is now at Reagan. The FD is trying to work in a new ladder into the budget for the future. Until Dulles gets a new one, they rely on Loudoun and Fairfax County ladders when needed.
Awesome shots mnsand. I really like the station 302 shots, that is a monster sized station. BTW did you inquire why the airport got a van styled BC vehicle? That is something different.
People complaining about spam in the spam mail box... Huh, what'll they think of next?
[quote name='JFong' post='226823' date='Jul 4 2008, 17:57 ']Awesome shots mnsand. I really like the station 302 shots, that is a monster sized station. BTW did you inquire why the airport got a van styled BC vehicle? That is something different.[/quote]
I believe these newer van's replaced older van style BC's vehicles. I photographed back in 1999 a 1996 Ford E350 Club Wagon with a Quigley 4wd conversion.
[quote name='Dave McClung' post='226978' date='Jul 5 2008, 12:39 ']Mike, any chance that you will pull your info on Dulles together for an article in Jerry's fine publication?[/quote]
Dave,
That is always an option. I love The Virginia Fire News magazine. Thanks,
Stafford County's second PUC brought by our station tonight for our committee to check out as we're looking at ordering one in the next couple of months.
What an interesting week this has been for me in terms of fire station visits. I had the opportunity to visit Dulles Airport (already posted) as well as make my way down I81 in Virginia to the Virginia/Tennessee line in Bristol, Va. Along the way, I had the opportunity to stop by several fire stations that I have wanted to visit, including a visit to see the "Twins", which I will show you shortly.
Heading from Winchester, Virginia south on I81, I wanted to visit the Mt. Jackson VFD in Shenandoah County. Not to long ago, the Mount Jackson volunteer fire department and the Mt. Jackson volunteer rescue squad joined together to form the "Mt. Jackson Rescue & Fire". The rescue squad station is now closed, and all apparatus are housed at the fire station, which is a coverted elementary school. Mt. Jackson is selling four fire trucks (2 engines, tower, and a Ford F mini).
They recently acquired this 1989 Pierce Lance 1250/750 with job number E4898 from the Prince Frederick, Maryland VFD. It is now running as Engine 21 in Mt. Jackson (it is not one of the engines to be sold).
I wanted to re-photograph this squad truck from Mt. Jackson because of its unique color. This came from the rescue squad, and the remaining ambulances are also the same color.
Squad 21 is a 1995 International 4700/Marion with Marion s/n 54081.
A variety of Shenandoah County career staff crews were at Mt. Jackson when I dropped by. Medic 19-3, from the neighboring New Market VRS has this 2006 Ford F450/Horton.
From Mt. Jackson I made my way to Salem, Virginia to hook up with Dr. John McNamara. John has recently purchased two fire engines from a Pennsylvania fire department. In a very unique arrangement, John has "loaned" the two fire trucks to the Upper Craig Creek VFD in Craig County, Virginia. Upper Craig Creek VFD is located in Catawba, Virginia. The VFD uses the engines as front line fire protection, but they belong to John. When John has a need to utilize one of the trucks (muster, etc. - John is a member of the Old Dominion Historical Fire Society), he goes to pick one up. Both parties benefit - John has a place to safely store his two trucks and he told me he enjoys having the opportunity to help a very needy FD. Upper Craig Creek has very little in terms of money. They have greatly benefitted by meeting John, who is now a life time member of the FD.
Now getting to Upper Craig Creek is half the fun, and I was glad John was driving me from Salem. It is located approximately 25 miles from Salem deep into the Roanoke Valley. We had to go over some mountains (near the Appalacian Trial) and down a long country road to get to the station.
What John did not know was that I was getting a bit "nervous" because of the weather. The sun, clouds, and rain were doing all kind of crazy things while we were at Upper Craig Creek VFD. While we were there, the sun would come out in short bursts, while at the same time hearing thunder very near us. As my visit to Upper Craig Creek continued, the weather became worse and worse.
I hope John did not get annoyed with me, but as soon as we got to the station, I told him lets get the "Twins" quickly because I really wanted to get some decent shots of them with some sunshine, and I saw that fading away quickly.
The "Twins" are two 1981 American LaFrance Century pumpers built one after the other. They originally were built for Weldon, PA. In 1996, Weldon sold both ALF's to the Weavertown, PA fire department, where they ran as Engine 28 and Engine 281. Weavertown may sound familiar - they have had some unique apparatus over the years, including a blue open cab Maxim F. In 1996, when Weavertown purchased the ALF's, they had some rehab work done on them including the extension of the cab to four doors. They also added some unique items, which I will show you. In the mid and later part of 2007, John purchased the ALF's from Weavertown and brought them to Salem and Upper Craig Creek.
I need to stop real quick here and thank from this board Andrew from North Carolina and Jack Sullivan from Virginia. Your information and posts on other threads allowed to know that these two engines were now at Upper Craig Creek and who owned them. Based on your information, I was able to hook up with John.
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