Almost exactly 89 years after a Peter Pirsch & Sons fire pumper truck responded to its first emergency call for the West Allis Fire Department, the very same vehicle is now set to rejoin the ranks.
The department raised about $15,000 in 10 months to buy it back from a private collector and is preparing to use the old fire engine to enhance its educational and community outreach programs. The engine was decommissioned in 1972 before it spent decades in the hands of private collectors.
After receiving the blessing of the West Allis Common Council to proceed with the transaction, Fire Chief Mason Pooler hopes the old engine — currently stored in Kohler — will be back in a West Allis vehicle bay by Sept. 29, the anniversary of the engine’s first emergency call in 1930.