RESTORED 1927 FIRE TRUCK MADE ITS REAPPEARANCE ON CHARRO DAYS

By Juan Montoya

If you watched the Charro Days parade this year, you probably saw an antique fire engine that has been restored to its original condition. 

But would you believe that it took the labor of love by a Pennsylvania antique lover who – after spending years restoring it – insisted that it belonged in the city where it rolled helping local firefighters put out fires and saving people?

The 55-foot, 1927 American LaFrance fire aerial truck with rear tiller was once a pile of rusted steel in a local junkyard when it was purchased by truck dealer John W. Brown, of Chambersburg, Pa. (See third picture from the bottom of story.) 

His son Ronald Earl, told firefighters that his father had always wanted the truck to go back to Brownsville.

Ronald Earl said his father, who died in 2006, had the truck restored to its original paint and colors that include the original city logo. Photos of the condition of the truck when it was purchased indicate that the restoration job was well done and that the engine work allowed the Browns to drive it in local parades.

Then-Brownsville Firefighters Association Local #970 President Jorge Lerma said at the time the family had reached out to city officials and the fire department because the late John Brown had included the restored truck in his will and left it to his son and daughter. Lerma said that his son had told him that the father had told them that Brownsville should have the chance to buy it first so that it could go back to its place of origin.

"The family has been really patient with us about getting it," Lerma said. "I first started talking to them about five years and we actually gave the city a check for $1,000 in earnest money to offer the family so they cold hold it until we could come up with the money."

Lerma said he credited the late city commissioner Ben Neece who, when he heard that the fire truck

was available, did what he could to try to get the city to cough up the money. The Browns had originally asked for more than $100,000, a not unreasonable sum given the time and effort it took the family to restore it to its original specs.

"They easily spent that much just resorting it," Lerma said. "They even kept the original gold-leaf paint and the original Brownsville firefighters' logo. Imagine getting a fully-restored 91-year-old aerial fire truck with a tiller seat for $50,000 plus transportation. It easily could cost double or triple that."

The firefighters' money was eventually returned after Neece and the city administration sought funding from  various city accounts. Lerma said that Neece had been stumped on a funding source that did not involve restricted funds and that the city had eventually found an appropriate fund for the purchase of the truck.

Some local firefighters remember that the truck was kept in storage at a warehouse at the Brownsville airport and that the last time it was used in a parade was during the Bicentennial in 1976. A 1975 edition of the Brownsville Herald shows firefighters cleaning the truck and in preparation for the 100th anniversary of the Brownsville Fire Dept.

Retired (and now the late) firefighter Pete Avila remembered that he was in the parade Bicentennial parade in 1976 and that he remembers firefighter Margarito Davila at the wheel and Ruben Garza at the tiller driving it down Elizabeth Street.

"The truck backfired and went out near the Palm Lounge and officer Geronimo Camarillo (who was a mechanic) got out and opened up the hood and got it started up again," Avila recalled. "The crowd thought it was part of the show and clapped and clapped."

Neece and Lerma both said that the truck needed to be displayed in a prominent place given its historical significance to the city and the firefighters. They say a showcase like the one for Simon Celaya's locomotive in front of the Historical Brownsville Museum on 7th Street would be ideal.

"We are lucky to have been able to acquire the fire truck," Lerma said at the time. "I can't give enough credit to the city commission and city administration for making its return possible...It's an important piece of our local history."

1927 American LaFrance tiller fire aerial truck at far right in 1975