Ortonville-It’s been more than 50 years since the Ortonville Fire Department’s 1928 Ford Model A fire truck raced off to a blaze.
While the firefighting days for the historical truck may be past, the memory of the first motorized fire truck owned by the Ortonville Fire Department will be immortalized.
The 1928 Ford Model A pumper was moved last week to its new home on display at the Old Mill. About a half-dozen Brandon firefighters pushed the historical fire truck from Brandon Fire Station #1 on South Street around the corner to Mill Street and the Old Mill, where an addition was constructed earlier this year.
The four-cylinder truck, which could carry about 200 gallons of water and pump water at 250 gallons per minute, served the Ortonville Fire Department from about 1930 until the 1950s. The village council sold the truck to a farmer north of the villlage who used the pumping equipment to spray fruit trees.
‘At some point, the old truck was just left out in a field and was rusting,? said Ken Faust, 80, who was serving on the Ortonville Fire Department in the 1950s when the truck was still in service.
‘So a few of the firefighters got together and purchased the old truck back. The truck was in pretty rough shape when we got it back,? said Faust. ‘The firefighters did some of the work themselves on the truck. Some of the painting was hired out, like chrome plating and sandblasting the rust off.?
Longtime village resident and former firefighter Ron Sutton drove the Model A fire truck on the last fire run.
‘In 1954, an auto parts store was on fire out near Lake Louise,? said Sutton. ‘So I came back to town and got the truck’it did just fine. Not long after that, the village council voted to sell the truck. Not everyone was happy with that.?
The truck was eventually purchased from an antique dealer for $250.