Burning commitment restores vintage fire engine

By Dan MacArthur
Fossil Creek Current

Most of Fort Collins' local landmarks are firmly affixed to the ground. But the latest addition is a rolling monument that's returned home for well-deserved rest and restoration after more than a half-century of service to communities across the county.

The gleaming white 1953 GMC fire engine has joined three of its predecessors stored in the former downtown trolley barn that retired fire chief Ed Yonker hopes soon will become a transportation museum.

"I'm coming on 82 years old," he said. "I can't live forever, and I'd like to see it done in my lifetime."

Lean and sinewy, Yonker doesn't look his years as he readily wrangles the ungainly engine lacking modern niceties such as power steering.

A man with a burning passion that drove him to document the first century of firefighting in Fort Collins, Yonker has overseen the careful restoration of all four vehicles. They date from the first one, a hose cart pulled by a dozen fleet-footed firemen used from 1883 until 1914. Badly decayed from years of display in the old library courtyard, it required eight months to restore.

It was replaced by a 1914 American LaFrance "chemical wagon." As the name suggests, it created a chemical reaction to provide the pressure required to propel water onto blazing buildings. "That was just an extension on the hose cart," Yonker explained. That engine was later refitted and now is on display at the Denver transportation museum established by Fort Collins welding machine magnate J.D. Forney.

Those rudimentary vehicles in turn gave way to the city's first modern equipment--a 1924 American LaFrance engine that shares a berth in the trolley barn. It was the first pumper and response engine until 1947 and provided back-up support until 1960. The junior chamber of commerce then acquired it for promotional purposes.

Rounding out the restored engines is a 1937 Diamond T. The bare chassis was outfitted with equipment salvaged from the wrecked 1930 engine. In 1953 it was converted into the city's first aerial ladder truck. It was sold to Leadville in 1963 and retrieved by the museum in 1981. Yonker said it sat in the city's service center grounds rotting away for nearly two decades, until the state historical society awarded a $40,000 grant to fund a ground-up restoration by inmates at the state prison in Ordway. That engine became the city's first wheeled, local landmark.

The 1953 GMC similarly was saved from rusty ruin after it was retired four years ago by the Livermore Volunteer Department, where it ended a long life of service. It was used by Fort Collins and the associated Poudre Valley Fire Prevention District until 1968, when it was transferred to the LaPorte volunteer department. It served the Wellington Fire District from 1976 until 1992, when it went to the recently organized Livermore district for its last stint of service. Yonker in 2003 brought it home for storage and eventual restoration with another $10,000 state historical society grant--a rare award for mobile local landmarks, he noted.

"It was pretty bad. We had a lot of work to do," Yonker said. "But I wanted to put it back like it was new. It's just a piece of Fort Collins history that we should keep."

But more than a historical artifact evoking smiles and admiring stares, the engine also serves as testament to firefighting's continuing transition. While strength and endurance still are essential, Yonker said, the job is much safer and more sophisticated now with breathing devices and hazardous material training. "They don't have to take the chances we did," he said.

Yonker said the equipment today is also far superior to that of the past. Today, he said, one engine can pump 1,500 gallons a minute while all the equipment combined was capable of pumping only 2,000 gallons a minute in the infamous 1965 State Dry Goods fire that destroyed much of a downtown block.

"We never had a chance of putting that fire out," said Yonker, who was on duty that day.

He was elevated to the top spot after Chief Cliff Carpenter was crushed under tons of rubble during that fire. It was Carpenter who hired Yonker when the young veteran needed a job.

Yonker, who bears a tattoo from his Navy service, was a firefighter aboard an aircraft carrier during World War II. He and his wife moved here in 1947 to open a Venetian blind factory on Linden Street. It flourished until it was curtains for the company with the post-war preference for more costly but fashionable fabric window coverings.

Yonker retired as chief in 1976 but still carries the title with at least a couple of long-timers who stopped by to greet him while he showed off the latest addition to the stable.

"I've always loved the fire service," he said. "I don't think you could have a finer job. You're here to help people and save people."

Now Yonker said he is determined to create the transportation museum as the last tribute to the profession he so loves. "That's my goal," he said. "I'm keeping my fingers crossed."