Brooksville community rallying around 100-year-old firetruck

Brooksville firetruck shares rich history

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BROOKSVILLE, Fla. - Like everything else, the price of a fire engine is going up. Some of them cost more than a million dollars now and they have a limited lifespan.

"Usually for an engine we look at 10 years, ladder trucks around 15," says Andrew Pepe, interim fire chief in Brooksville.

But there's a focus here on one firetruck that's 100 years old.

100-year-old firetruck in Brooksville.

What they're saying:

"It's a sense of pride that this is the symbol of the fire department for the City of Brooksville," says District Chief Donnie Nichols.

The truck they are proud of is a 1925 American Lafrance. It was the top of the line when the city bought it new. They paid $12 thousand dollars for it. That was a lot of money back then.

The other side:

"There was a lot of opposition to spending 12 thousand dollars," says Suzanne Touchton of the Hernando Historical Museum Association.

In 1925, this area had sawmills, turpentine, citrus, and mostly dirt streets. "You’d have whole city blocks with just one house, a garden, a stable, and maybe a couple of cows roaming around," says Touchton.

That new fire truck was one of the fanciest things in town. Now it's a museum piece at the old train depot.

The Brooksville community is rallying around a 100-year-old fire truck, and they are now in search of one important part.

A high school auto shop class worked on the Lafrance years ago. They restored it but couldn't get it running.

"They tried, but they ran into some issues with parts procurement," says Nichols.

Nobody has been able to find the leather clutch, but fire trucks are now full of technology.

"They’ve already started building firetrucks now that are all electric," says Pepe.

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Who knows what fire engines will look like in another 100 years, but we know what they looked like a century ago thanks to the 1925 Lafrance in Brooksville, the firetruck that some said was too nice for the town.

The Brooksville community is rallying around a 100-year-old firetruck, and they are now in search of one important part.

What you can do:

On Saturday, June 7, they'll hold a Lafrance Centennial Celebration at the old train depot museum. If you have a leather clutch for a 1925 Lafrance, please bring it along.

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The Source: Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13's Lloyd Sowers.

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