Itawamba County’s first fire truck is out of retirement and looking better than it has in ages.
The 1946 International fire engine, purchased by Fulton Fire Department’s first fire chief, V.H. Pate, Sr. in 1946, made its first major public appearance in decades during the city’s annual Christmas parade earlier this month. The truck’s been in storage for years, out of sight and out of mind, but was recently recovered, restored and returned to its proper home: The Fulton Fire Department.
Built and bought just one year after the end of World War II, the truck bears only minor aesthetic similarities to its contemporary counterparts. It lacks the figurative bells and whistles of its descendants. Its bed is lined with panels of dark polished wood. Likewise, the ladder hanging from its side is wood and minuscule compared to the giants that stretch from the tops of modern ladder trucks. Its hood is rounded in the popular style of vehicles from the late 40s and early 50s.
Stored in the back of the Fulton Fire Department’s garage, the fire engine is dwarfed by its contemporary counterparts, practically hidden from those who don’t know it’s back there. Fulton Fire Chief Brad Beard and Itawamba County Fire Coordinator Patrick Homan stood beside and admired it.
Beard nodded toward the department’s 60-foot ladder truck, the newest vehicle in its fleet, and said, “From where we’ve come from to where we are.”
That sentiment has a lot to do with why he and his fellow firefighters have spent so much time and effort lovingly restoring the luster of the old truck. Beard said he isn’t positive when the truck was officially decommissioned, but it’s been shuffled from place-to-place, largely forgotten. It was stored in a lumber yard for years, then the old Emergency Management Office on Access Road. When that office moved, the truck was returned to the fire station.
When the truck was rediscovered, Beard thought it would be a good idea to give it a new lease on life, a chance to once again be a source of pride for the community it served.
“We decided if we were going to have a parade truck, it ought to be the first fire truck Fulton had,” Beard said.
So, Beard and Homan set about restoring the truck.
All things considered, the truck wasn’t in terrible condition, Beard said.
“When we got it back up here, we worked it, buffed it, did some tuneup on the engine,” he said.
Homan restored the wood in the truck bed and ladder, much of which had rotted, himself.
The truck wasn’t running, but Beard said most of the fixes required were minor. After replacing a few (or a lot) of aging parts, the truck was able to rumble back to life, perhaps not in tip-top, fire-fighting shape, but better than it had been since any current members of the department had served.
“We spent a lot of time sanding and varnishing,” Beard said.
Panels on the truck itself say it was built by Orear Fire Apparatus Company in Roanoke, Virginia. The truck was purchased new the same year it was built. It has never seen service outside of Fulton. According to Homan, that’s unusual. Departments swap, share and sell trucks. But this one has only ever called one city, one station home.
“This has only been Fulton’s fire truck. That makes it unique,” Homan said. “In fact, this was the only fire truck in the county for a long time.”
Any fire in the county saw this truck pull up. Undoubtedly, it’s helped save countless homes and lives.
To Beard and Homan, that history has everything to do with its appeal. The truck deserves a place of honor.
“This fire department has been built on tradition,” Homan said. “It’s been neat to bring back a piece of Fulton’s history.”
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