The vintage 1946 Lumby Firetruck restoration project that aimed to honour first responders in the area has been a great success.
From volunteers to donations, Lumby local and Vernon RCMP officer Gary Mclaughlin said the community support has been overwhelming. Since discovering the truck in Fintry, he launched a fundraising website at lumbyfiretruck.ca in the hopes to raise a minimum of $1,000 and to hopefully restore the truck in time for it to participate in the annual Santa Claus parade in early December.
“Things are looking really good and we got the siren going which is really the most important thing out of everything,” said Mclaughlin. “The truck runs and the breaks work so it will be at the Santa Claus Parade in Lumby next month.”
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He said that since launching the campaign, the project has received about $5,000 in donations — both through their gofundme page and through other means of donation. Crowd fundraising is set to end Sunday, Nov. 11.
”It’s not that we have to end the funding — or that we should — but there’s quite a bit of money that we have to buy things for the truck so we want to start to get access to the funds obviously to start that.”
He said that they have also received lots of support from local businesses, including Kal Tire and a Vernon upholstery business — that have offered their services free of charge.
Since the Morning Star’s initial article, more of the truck’s history has surfaced via official documents and historic photographs.
“I was doing research about some of the records were posted online about where their trucks went and, based on the registration number on the truck, I was able to find out that it was sold to Vancouver,” Mclaughlin said. “I didn’t know if it was a Vancouver truck or that was where it was shipped to but I found out that it actually had a full career with Vancouver at No. 19 Firehall before it was sold to the North Okanagan Regional District in the early ’70s and did about 15 years in Lumby.”
From there he reached out and was able to connect with the President of Vancouver Fire Fighters Historical Society Ryan Cameron.
“It’s great to see the truck alive and I’m glad it will be restored. It originally was ours, purchased in 1947, went into service on October 10, 1947, at No. 19 as shop 61,” wrote Cameron in an email to Mclaughlin earlier this week. “It was retired on April 18, 1974, when it was bought (best guess) by the Vernon Fire Department at the city auction. The ladder rack was [also] added by VFD shops sometime in the early ‘50s.”
He said that the fire truck’s engine is historic as it was the first post-war purchase for them and “a favourite with the iconic LaFrance “modern” cab-forward design.”
“We are fortunate to have ex-VFD apparatus throughout B.C. and are in the process of receiving back our 1961 LaFrance 900 series (in excellent shape) that was sold to Okanagan Landing upon its retirement and will be put into use as a parade/special event rig,” he wrote before wishing Lumby luck on the rest of the restoration process.
“Now that we have all the paperwork we can actually get it licensed properly and take it back out on the road. It’s been a pretty cool week,” said Mclaughlin.
After the parade, the firetruck will be used as a promotional tool for local first responders.
“It’s going to become a permanent exhibit with the Lumby museum recognizing the first responders past and present — that’s all first responders: police, fire and ambulance — and we’ll be doing an exhibit eventually and some of the funding will be used for that exhibit too.”
Anyone who wants to make a donation to the project may do so through the gofundme page at https://www.gofundme.com/lumby-fire-truck-restoration or via cheque made out to the Lumby museum or by contacting Mclaughlin himself at gary.mclaughlin@hotmail.ca.
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