PHOTOS: Larry Lechmanski opened the door and there the four beauties posed, shining, immaculate, waiting for their next public event.
Four Shelter Island Fire Department vehicles, ranging in years from 1929 to 1964, were right at home in the Cobbetts Lane Firehouse, the brick structure built into the side of the hill and known as the Potato House, from the time it was used to store harvested potatoes, once a profitable cash crop for the Island.
It’s fitting the antique trucks live in the Potato House, because they contain within their metal, rubber and glass, important eras in the history of the Department.
The beautifully restored and maintained vehicles, polished and gleaming, aligned on either side of a middle aisle of the concrete floor — with Marine 10, one of the Department’s fire boats at the rear — are a 1964 Ford “Class A” pumper (meaning it is certified to fight fires), a 1957 Ford Class A pumper, a diminutive 1929 Chevrolet, and a 1931 Mack.