EAST LONGMEADOW – The town’s first motorized fire truck, a 1924 Seagrave, has been restored to working condition and will be featured in East Longmeadow’s Fourth of July Parade for the first time since the 1980s.

Firefighter Bill Houle told Reminder Publications he was granted $28,000 in restoration funds by the Historical Commission to return the truck into working condition. His six-year-old son Tyler was the reason he decided to spearhead the project. 

“Most Sundays, I would bring [my] son, Tyler, to the East Longmeadow Fire Station,” he explained. “We started making the visits when he was around three years old. We would walk up and down the rows examining the fire trucks and all the gear that was displayed along the wall. We enjoyed sitting in the trucks and pretending that we were driving to get ice cream cones or that we were in a parade. Each week, I would measure Tyler against the height of the fire truck tires to see if the tires were getting any smaller.”

He continued, “As we made our way through the trucks, we would always leave enough time for the old, red, dusty, fire truck in the corner of the station. The first time that Tyler saw the truck, he wanted to know all about it. ‘Why is it so dusty? Why doesn’t it move? Why is it red?’ He knew that it would need a name … Freddy, Freddy the Fire Truck.”

Houle said he and Tyler will be sitting in the front seat of ‘Freddy’ during the Fourth of July Parade.

“I think it’s important for the community to see its history … Not only is the truck the first truck, but it never left the town,” Houle added.

He explained he found himself doing extensive research on the 92-year-old fire truck and learned it had not been utilized for about 20 years.

Fire Capt. Edward McCandlish said in 1957 the Seagrave truck was retired. The truck was functional and appeared in some Fourth of July Parades until the late 1980s. At that time, members of the department planned to take apart the truck and restore it for the town’s 100th anniversary in 1994.

“Unfortunately it came apart, but never back together,” he explained.

Houle said the lead mechanic for the 1994 restoration project had gotten sick and passed away, which led to the project being put on indefinite hiatus until recently.

McCandlish said the last time the truck was utilized in an emergency was during the 1976 Fourth of July weekend in which there was large barn fire on Chestnut Street.

“All the other trucks went and this truck was still there,” he noted. “There were three guys standing around and they hopped on it and took it. I don’t think it went and fought the fire, but it got three members to the fire basically as a transport.”

Houle said the mechanical aspects of the truck were restored, including the transmission, motor, and radiator.

“A lot of the parts had to be machine made because it’s such an old truck,” he explained.

McCandlish noted the parts are unique and cannot be purchased at an auto shop.

Houle said the department kept most of the major parts, which had to be reassembled.

“And things like the transmission, there were no fluids in it and there hadn’t been fluids in it for years,” he noted. “There was actually rust in a lot of the stuff. It had to get really cleaned out. The fuel tank had to be redone … It had to be completely cleaned and put together and then certain smaller parts had to be machine made.”

Houle said the department plans to keep the 1924 truck at the fire station and run it periodically by driving around town when the weather’s nice.

When asked if people could view the truck, McCandlish noted, “It’s a public building; they can stop by anytime they want.”

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