McKinney fire department history receives new shine

A piece of McKinney Fire Department history left last Monday, but only temporarily, as the Central Fire Station saw two antique fire trucks, a 1932 ladder truck and 1924 engine, towed off for repairs and refurbishment. In a few months, the highlights of the fire department museum will return with a new coat of paint and in working order.

The McKinney Community Development Corporation financed the refurbishment with a grant for $109,000. Once the work is complete, firefighters will be able to take department history into the open air and use the trucks in various city parades.

Battalion Chief Darrell W. Groves, a student of department history, said those driving the trucks once it’s parade-ready will be some of the same men who used them to fight fires when it was still in service. The ’32 won’t need too much work to return to form despite some of the storied blazes it’s seen.

“The famous picture I see it on is the Pope Theatre that burned down,” Groves said. “These ladders are all put up around this picture. These old ladders, some of them are headed towards the S-shape in the curves, and these firefighters are going up and down them like it’s nothing. But they never failed. These ladders never failed. They made them right back then.”

Groves said the ’32’s ladder extends about 60 feet. He also said he wouldn’t dare get on it.

Requiring the bulk of the refurbishment effort is the older truck. Under nearly a decade’s worth of rust and wear covering the machine, the McKinney Fire Department logo can hardly be made out. This truck will be painted, showing clearly who it belongs to, and ready to both run and pump when it returns. First, though, it will be laid out in pieces on the floor.

“They’ll completely tear the entire thing apart and build it back, fixing each individual part,” Groves said. “We’ll be able to pump at a fire if we wanted to with this truck.”

Groves said the department sold the truck in the early ’60s to a collector that stowed it in a lumber yard in Gainesville, where it sat for about 15 years. Local collector Jack Moss, whose father was a volunteer firefighter, later bought the truck intending to refurbish it but instead gave it to the department. Moss played on the truck as a kid and told Groves he wants to see it painted before he dies.

The refurbishment process for the ’24 will take about six months. Once the truck returns it will be taking out to the square to pump water in a public event.

Alongside the antique fire trucks, the fire department collects a variety of other historical items, including photographs, uniforms, commendations and log books detailing past events when they happened. Currently, it has books dating back to 1891 and is searching for those between then and 1887, when the department began.
By Andrew Snyder in The McKinney Courier-Gazette