By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
The Fire Trucks from Davis Volunteer Fire Department turn heads when they pull up to the scene. Of the current fleet of vehicles at the Fire Hall, three are as comfortable at a car show as they are at the forefront of a call. Davis VFD Chief Alan Cosner and his crew have worked hard to keep their fleet in use, including several antique vehicles. “I like to keep the older trucks because they are so much better built,” Cosner said.
The latest item of maintenance in the fleet is the replacement of a steel tank with a custom poly tank on the fleet’s 1977 Pierce Class A Pumper Truck. According to Cosner, Pro Poly in Davis is using the the existing steel tank to create a mold to form the new poly tank for the truck. The new tank is required due to a leak that has developed in the steel tank, according to Cosner. “With Pro Poly being right in our back yard, I just went a head and called them and they are working with me,” Cosner said.
Cosner said that his department uses the truck in the winter because it performs better on snowy roads. “Its one of our Class A Pumpers,” Cosner said. “We use it for reserve around town in the winter cause it goes better in the snow.”
According to Cosner, the rising cost of new trucks is a large factor is his desire to keep existing vehicles on the road. According to Cosner, new emissions requirements has caused companies to completely revamp how and where equipment is located so they can address the new emissions systems. “We just decided that due to the prices of new one and the prices of refurbs, it was just cheaper to just go ahead and replace the steel tank with a a poly tank,” Cosner said.
According to Cosner, the truck was ordered new in 1977 from Fenley Fire Equipment. It was the third new truck purchased by the Department, according to Cosner. Of the three original trucks, two are still in the fleet. “That was the third new truck that the department had got,” Cosner said. “Before they had always had used stuff.”
Cosner said construction of the current Fire Hall began just before the truck was ordered. There were concerns, according to Cosner, that the new truck wouldn’t fit in the old Fire Hall that was located in what is now Davis Town Hall. “When they ordered it in ’77, they started building this building before they ordered it,” Cosner said. “They was worried that the truck was going to come before they got the building finished because the original Fire Hall was where city hall is and it wouldn’t fit.”
Cosner said his father was flown to Wisconsin when the truck was finished so that he could drive it to Davis. “He actually flew my dad out to Wisconsin and dad drove it back from the factory,” Cosner said.
According to Cosner, the older trucks get a lot of looks when they take them to complete pump tests. Whenever the trucks are out in public, they get a lot of attention and often have their pictures taken.
Cosner said the antique trucks still pass pump tests every year. According to Cosner, as long as the State doesn’t change their regulations on pump trucks, he anticipates the trucks to remain in service for years to come. “It passes pump tests every single year,” Cosner said. “It just keeps chugging along and it doesn’t have all that electronic stuff that some of them do. When all else fails, it just keeps chugging along.”
Besides the 1977 Pierce, the fleet’s original purchases included a 1950 GMC Pumper and a 1953 Panel Truck. Cosner said the 1953 Panel Truck was purchased from a Meyers Motors in Davis and then sent to Pennsylvania to be fitted out as a fire truck. Of the three original new purchased trucks, the 1953 Panel Truck and the 1977 Pierce are still in the fleet. “We lost track of number one when it was sold,” Cosner said. “At least we still have number two and number three still in the fleet.”
Cosner said he hopes the new tank will allow the truck to stay in operation well into the future. The estimated time to fabricate the new tank, according to Cosner, will be around 10 weeks. “We should have the new one in about ten or so weeks to put back in,” Cosner said. “And hopefully that truck will run us another 45 or 46 or so years.”
“We got to preserve some of the history,” Cosner said.
