VIDEO: One retired fire crew that has turned into collectors has been looking to tap into the little kid energy that often follows a field trip to a local firehouse.
"My family had no problem buying for me at Christmas," said Bob Franklin, retired Little Rock captain. "It was always fire trucks."
He has used that story to explain what drove him to more than 50 years in the fire service. Franklin shared that shopping for him these days is still just as easy— just tell him you're cleaning out a fire station anywhere in Arkansas. "We started having fire departments calling us and saying 'hey, we have this old stuff, you want it?' And so it just kind of going from word of mouth," he said.
Those calls started coming in once word got out that Franklin and his retired buddies wanted to put together a museum that would build on the Historic Firehouse Museum and Hostel in Little Rock's MacArthur Park and go bigger.