Danville's 1920 fire engine will be on display during band festival

By BRENDA S. EDWARDS
brenda@amnews.com

Hulda will be among the top brass in town for this weekend's Great American Brass Band Festival.

The antique Ahrens fire engine looks much like it did June 22, 1920, when it was purchased new for Danville Fire Department at a cost of $12,950.

The red and white truck has been away from Danville for 46 years. Jerry Voisinet of Piqua, Ohio, restored it and will bring it back for exhibit Friday through Sunday.

Tony Gaier, of Lima, Ohio, who has done extensive research on the local fire and police departments, said the fire engine was the first motorized one for the city.

He has researched daily copies of Danville newspapers from 1916 to 1971 for more than five years, looked through city council minutes and city directories, and interviewed several people with connections to the fire department to compile 265 pages of history.

In earlier times, the city used teams of horses to pull chemical engines and ladder wagons to fight fires. After World War I, city councilmen began to talk seriously about acquiring a motorized fire engine.

By early February 1920, the city council and Fire Chief G.T. Thurmond went to the Ahrens Fox factory in Columbus, Ohio, to inspect various fire apparatus. The councilmen also looked at engines at the Seagrave factory and American LaFrance in Dayton.

They decided in November 1919 on the Ahrens engine and the purchase was made possible by a bond issue of $15,000. The purchase was made, and the engine arrived in front of the Federal Building (now the Community Arts Center) Aug. 6, 1920.

Large crowds assembled downtown in front of the courthouse to watch the powerful pump propel a full stream of water more than 75 feet over the top cupola of the courthouse.

It was not long before the engine was put to use. The Wilson & Lipscomb Machine Shop, near Perryville Street, caught fire, and the blaze was put out in half a minute.

The new engine caused much excitement in town. Hundreds of people in automobiles lined up on Main Street in front of the fire department to watch the fire engine.

This prompted the city council to adopt a policy that required all vehicles in the vicinity of the fire house to come to a complete standstill until the fire truck was completely out of the station.

The engine was used at numerous fires and took part in parades through town. It once carried the Praying Colonels football team after Centre College's infamous C6-H0 vistory over Harvard University.

When the fire department bought a 1959 Peter Pirsch rig, the Sutphen dealership that supplied the new engine bought the old one for $700 as part of the sale.

It was a shame that no one had shown any interest locally to keep the fire engine in town, said former fire chief Tom Connelly, according to a news article.

Connelly said when he was fire chief in 1939, the engine had saved the city of Perryville. Another time, the fire engine pumped seven days and nights at the city dump on Randolph Hill.

Mayor Roy Arnold said the city did not have money to keep the relic and the $700 could be put to better use.

The dedication plaque, bell, search light, fire extinguishers, axes, nozzles and hose reel were removed from the truck, and it left town on Dec. 2, 1960. The engine would not start on the day it was to leave. A wrecker took it to Lexington where it was shipped by rail to the Peter Pirsch & Sons dealership.

The dealership speculated the truck might be a collector's item someday, according to the newspaper.

Voisinet, a former firefighter, has made it a collector's item. He traded in a Model A Ford and $500 for the engine in 1973. Then he parked it and went into the military for 24 years.

In 1997, Voisinet took the engine to Michigan to get it worked on, then it went to Hope, Maine, for 4 1/2 years. Andy Swift restored the vehicle with the help of Voisinet, who did some of the plate work and was the "go-fer" picking up parts.

Voisinet will head for Danville early Friday with his prize fire engine. It only travels 30 miles per hour so it will arrive here by truck.

The engine still needs hubcaps and a few other minor fixes.

"I'm pleased with the work, but there is always a little more to do," said Voisinet.

This story ran in the Advocate on June 7, 2006.

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