The White Elephant. Was it a Jinx?

How many of you thought that Boston's apparatus was always red? Back in 1941 the city purchased a 1941 American La France 125' metal aerial with five aerial sections that was painted white. There are several rumors as to why it was white; all of it is speculation. Some say it was built for Denver Colorado; they had white rigs. Others say it was white to be different. What ever the reason, Boston bought it and assigned it to Ladder Company 8 in Fort Hill Square. It went into service on September 11, 1941.

This was a new type of apparatus for the city. It had a closed cab, metal aerial, and could operate two ladder pipes at different heights simultaneously. The truck cost $24,000, which was not an inexpensive purchase in 1941.

The narrow streets and parked cars made this piece of apparatus very difficult to drive in the City. All other apparatus had open cabs, except for the 1930 Federals of Rescue Company's 1 and 3. Inside the cab the visibility was bad, looking through the narrow windshields firefighters equated the rig to being inside an army tank. Its overall length was 53 feet, 7 inches, which was 10 feet shorter than the contemporary 85 foot wooden aerial as advertised in the trade journals.

With the aerial fully extended it could operate two ladder pipes, 600 GPM at 125' and 1100 GPM at 65'. It was equipped with a 240 horsepower V-12. It was issued to Department #207.

A short time after this rig entered service the aerial ladder jammed and buckled while on a drill. The aerial was secured with ropes to the adjacent building and eventually cut from the chassis. A representative from the factory in Elmira, NY flew to Boston to supervise its removal. The cost of the repairs was covered under a guarantee from American LaFrance. Rumor has it they tried to re-tract the aerial with the pawls still locked. This was the start of the "jinx."

On November 15, 1942, Ladder Company 8 responded to a five alarm fire at Luongo