VIDEO/PHOTOS: A Brockton fire truck that has been missing for a number of years is making its way home where it will serve as a permanent memorial to the lives lost at a deadly fire decades ago.
The nearly 100-year-old Squad A truck was used to battle the massive Strand Theater fire in 1941 that claimed the lives of 13 firefighters, four of whom rode to the blaze in that very truck. “It really is a living piece of history and it’s much more than just a truck — it’s a part of Brockton’s soul,” Retired Fire Chief Kenneth Galligan said. “This was a very big moment in history for our department and our fire service. They will never be forgotten.”
Galligan was contacted last year by an antique fire truck collector who is also a firefighter in Billerica. He said the man told him he bought the truck from a family in New Hampshire and believed it was from Brockton.
“The bottom line was, he told me about the truck and I said, ‘You know what that sounds like a Brockton truck,” Galligan said.