VIDEO: A longtime member of the Wausau Fire Department retired last week, but not before leaving behind a piece of history for the entire community to enjoy. Meet Steve Robers, as of 6:45 on Friday, January 4th, a retired lieutenant and 22-year veteran of the Wausau Fire Department. In the last year before Robers bid farewell, he made it his mission to get this truck, a 1936 Pirsch Engine, back on the road. The truck was in the hands of a construction company in Stevens Point for years before they cleared space, and sent it home to Wausau fire. "You know it had some issues; (the truck) was barely running,” Robers says. “The fuel was clogged up; the carburetor was gunked up, those types of things.”
Paul Czarapata, the Battalion Chief of the fire department, witnessed Robers’ work on the Pirsch. “It wasn't just a few sparkplugs or a few wires,” Czarapata says. “It was tracking down some pieces that were in somebody's warehouse in Washington."