Windsor First Motor Pumper - 1914 Seagrave. - Walt McCall Collection An important historical milestone was passed in mid-April, 2014. It was exactly 100 years ago…
In late 1995, Windsor Fire & Rescue Services took delivery of a new triple combination pumper with a difference. Built by Carl Thibault Ltd. of Drummondville,…
In November, 1974, the Windsor Fire Department took delivery of its first lime-yellow rig – a 1050 IGPM pumper built by King-Seagrave Ltd of Woodstock, Ontario…
During the summer of 2000, the Windsor Fire & Rescue Service took delivery of three new pieces of apparatus built by a well-known American fire apparatus…
In November 1983, Chrysler Canada Ltd. launched production of a revolutionary new kind of passenger vehicle in its Windsor Assembly Plant. The first vehicles of their…
Just over 100 years ago, the Windsor Fire Department participated in an epochal contest that pitted a horse-drawn fire wagon against a fast- emerging rival -…
Swallowed up by the City of Windsor in the 1935 municipal amalgamation that also absorbed the former communities of Sandwich and East Windsor, the thriving, affluent…
As noted in Part 1, the Windsor Fire Department purchased its first station wagon in 1961. The steel-bodied, four-door 1961 Chevrolet wagon was much more versatile…
Ever since horses replaced manpower to pull fire apparatus, the Chief Engineer – or Fire Chief in today’s vernacular -- has traditionally sped to fires in…
In its half-century of existence the Riverside Fire Department utilized just four pieces of motor fire apparatus. The small volunteer fire department’s first motorized fire truck…
Windsor’s first television station – CKLW-TV – took to the airwaves in the fall of 1954. For many years Channel 9’s tall red-and-white-painted transmission tower behind…
Well-known Windsor wagon maker Moise L. Menard began production of an automobile bearing his own name in 1908. Two years later Menard switched exclusively to truck…
With an extensive, heavily built up Detroit River shoreline, Windsor has, for more than a century, relied on neighboring Detroit when a fireboat was needed to…
On July 1, 1935 the City of Windsor annexed the neighboring towns of Walkerville, Sandwich and East Windsor. This historic amalgamation drastically altered the size and…
With the delivery of three new pumpers earlier this year, the Rosenbauer name became the most prolific on the Windsor Fire & Rescue Services current apparatus…
Clarence Sutphen founded his fire equipment sales business in Columbus, Ohio in 1890. Mr. Sutphen added motor fire apparatus to his wares when he became a…
One hundred years ago, the Windsor Fire Department received its first aerial hook and ladder truck. Built by the W. E. Seagrave Fire Apparatus Company in…
The introduction of the first successful steam fire engine in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1852 revolutionized firefighting in North America, precipitating as it did the replacement of…
Following the annexation by Windsor of Riverside and a portion of Sandwich West Township on January 1, 1966 the Windsor Fire Department acquired half a dozen…
Sandwich Fire Department's 1927 Gotfredson-Bickle Ladder Truck In one of our very first articles in this series, we chronicled the remarkable, continuing history of a Gotfredson-Bickle…
In 1974, retired playground equipment maker Robert Wormser constructed a light-duty rescue unit in the garage of his Florida home. Buoyed by its success, he formed…
With the annexation of the former Town of Riverside on January 1, 1966, the Windsor Fire Department acquired three pieces of apparatus: a two-year-old LaFrance/Mercury 100-foot…
After an absence of many years, the famed Seagrave nameplate returned to the Windsor Fire & Rescue Services apparatus roster in the early 1990s. Windsor’s first…
In 1975, several former employees of the recently-closed Diamond-Reo truck manufacturing firm in Lansing, Michigan organized a new company in nearby Charlotte to make custom cab-forward…
Introduced in Chicago in 1958, the elevating platform – or Snorkel – revolutionized aerial firefighting in North America. The Windsor Fire Department received its first elevating…
Although the Windsor fire Department had purchased two new pumpers in the early 1970s, the rest of the city’s pumper fleet was rapidly becoming antiquated. An…
In 1970, a respected optometrist in Oswego, N.Y. released the results of a scientific study which concluded that yellow was a much more visible -- and…
In 1957, the Ford Motor Company introduced a new line of medium/heavy-duty trucks called the “C” Series. The new C-Series Ford’s rectangular, flat-faced cab tilted forward…
For most of the past century, the “big three” of the U.S. and Canadian fire apparatus industry were American-LaFrance, Seagrave - and Mack.Mack was unique among…
By the mid-1950s, the Windsor Fire Department had pretty much completed its postwar modernization program. Following the delivery of a Bickle-Seagrave pumper in 1953, no more…
In 1951, the Seagrave Corporation - and its Canadian subsidiary, Bickle-Seagrave Ltd. of Woodstock, Ontario - marked its 70th anniversary with the introduction of a totally…
In 1951, The Seagrave Corporation of Columbus, Ohio -- and its Canadian cousin, Bickle-Seagrave Ltd. of Woodstock, Ontario -- marked Seagrave’s 70th anniversary as one of…
As the nineteen-fifties began, Windsor’s pumper fleet was urgently in need of modernization. Most of the city’s front-line pumpers were wide-open, chain-drive relics of the 1920s.…
Immediately following the Second World War, Windsor’s firefighting fleet was in dire need of modernization. The city’s last new pumper had been purchased in the mid-1920s,…
Of the four chain-drive American-LaFrance pumpers which served the Windsor Fire Department from the 1920s through the 1950s, the last one purchased had the most colorful,…
In 1914, the American-LaFrance Fire Engine Company of Elmira, N.Y. opened a Canadian subsidiary plant and office in Toronto. Founded in 1904 with roots extending all…
Three-quarters of a century later, one can only wonder what the members of Windsor’s very first rescue squad would think of Rescue 3 - Windsor’s current…
Purchased in the mid-1960s and early `70s, Windsor’s two rescue squad trucks were due for replacement as the 1980s began. Squad 1’s 1967 Chevrolet and Squad…
Since the formation of its first emergency life-saving squad in the early 1930s, the Windsor Fire Department’s rescue squad had always responded to alarms out of…
After nearly 17 years of hard urban fire service, “The Bug” was simply wearing out. The fleet-footed 1940 Ford had already been through two flathead V8…
Most of the current members of the Windsor Fire & Rescue Services won’t recognize this colorful nickname, but just mention “The Bug” to any longtime Windsor…
Just over a century ago, in the latter part of 1906, the Springfield, Massachusetts Fire Department placed the first “Flying Squadron” into service. Using a locally-built…
"THE SNORKEL" Strolling back to his office after lunch one day in 1957, Chicago Fire Commissioner Robert J. Quinn paused to watch some city tree-trimmers at…
1967 LaFRANCE-INTERNATIONAL By the mid-1960s, Windsor’s aerial ladder fleet was beginning to show its age. Aerial No. 1A - a 1936 American-LaFrance - had been in…
THE RIVERSIDE QUINT The Quintuple Combination - or “Quint” - is the Swiss Army Knife of fire trucks. As its numerical name implies, the versatile “quint”…
THE "JUNIOR" AERIAL Two basic types of aerial ladder trucks dominated the North American fire service for most of the 20th century – the tractor-trailer tillered…
“THE PIRSCH” The Second World War was finally over, and Windsor was again basking in peacetime prosperity. Because it had been an important centre for war…
By the mid-1930s - twenty-five years after it had been delivered - Windsor’s first aerial ladder truck was clearly showing its age. Built in 1910, the…
Over a period of seventy-two years, the Windsor Fire Department acquired a total of nine conventional aerial ladder trucks – seven purchased by the city and…
Before there were aerial ladder trucks and firefighting elevating platforms, there was the City Service Ladder Truck. Visualize, if you can, an aerial truck without the…
“Old Mike” – Windsor’s First Motor Pumper Purchased in 1914, Windsor’s first motor-driven pumper was also one of the first automobile pumping engines placed in service…
Perhaps the least used piece of front-line motor fire apparatus in Windsor Fire & Rescue Service history was a barely-remembered, single-purpose hose truck purchased during the…
