chicagoareafire.com

CFD Apparatus History – trucks with boosters

Some additional information about the aerials purchased by the Chicago Fire Department in the late 60s and early 70s . Some have inquired about the fact that several aerials were delivered with booster reels and 300-gallon water tanks. There were several types of aerials purchased by the CFD during this time frame.

These included:

• (3) 1968 Mack CF/Pirsch 100-foot aerials (with a red cab face) (300-gallon tanks)
• (1) 1968 Seagrave aerial with an FWD chassis featuring rear steering for Truck 63 at O’Hare Airport
• (8) 1970 Seagrave rear-mounts (250-gallon tanks)
• (5) 1970 Ward LaFrance/Grove units assigned to Truck 7, Truck 12, Truck 18, Truck 21, and Truck 34 (300-gallon tanks)
• (3) 1972 Mack CF 700/Pirsch 100-foot aerials (with a silver cab face) (300-gallon tanks)

At some point in time, the shops drained the water tanks and removed the booster reels as seen in some of the photos posted HERE and below.

Future posts will show more of these aerials, but the photos here show a few examples.

This is a 1968 Seagrave Rear Admiral 100′ aerial with a 500-gallon booster tank and twin booster reels. It features an FWD chassis with rear steering and was assigned to Truck 63 at O’Hare Airport. Larry Shapiro photo

Truck 5 was assigned one of three 1972 100-foot Pirsch rear-mount aerials mounted on a Mack CF chassis with a 500-gallon water tank and twin booster reels. Larry Shapiro photo

Previous posts in this series depicted CFD trucks with boosters from 1967 and CFD trucks with boosters from 1968.

Tags: American laFrance 900 series rear-mount aerial ladder, American LaFrance Ladder Chief, booster tanks on Chicago aerial ladders, Chicago ladder trucks with booster tanks, Chicago Pirsch ladder, Chicago Truck 1, Chicago Truck 12, Chicago Truck 18, Chicago Truck 21, Chicago Truck 3, Chicago Truck 34, Chicago Truck 7, Larry Shapiro, Mack CF Pirsch aerial in Chicago, Peter Pirsch & Sons, Seagrave Rear Admiral aerial, Ward LaFrance Ambassador, Ward LaFrance Grove aerial, Ward LaFrance in the CFD

This entry was posted on March 5, 2013, 7:58 AM and is filed under Fire Department History, Fire Truck photos, Historic fire apparatus. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

9 Comments

• #1 by Dennis on March 6, 2013 - 10:39 AM

  

  The new Pierce truck for Tinley is replacing Truck 201 the 76 Seagrave which is cross staffed by the crew of Engine 201 which is also being replaced by the Pierce truck.

• #2 by Dennis on March 6, 2013 - 10:35 AM

  

  Tony, Tinley Park bought that truck new it was never in Chicago and its still in use until the new aerial comes this year.

• #3 by Tony on March 5, 2013 - 10:45 PM

  

  Tinleys Truck 201 (The old 276) actually was an original purchase from Chicago FD I believe. Its not used anymore, but still in storage and still in pretty decent shape.

• #4 by Jim Johnson on March 5, 2013 - 8:17 PM

  

  What became of the original ford and vco cabbed snorkels how long were in service? were they junked or?

• #5 by RY on March 5, 2013 - 1:13 PM

  

  @MP, Yes T5 is the running Truck that appeared in the movie.

• #6 by Kevin Griffin on March 5, 2013 - 12:11 PM

  

  truck 3 kinda looks like TPFD truck 201

• #7 by MP on March 5, 2013 - 12:08 PM

  

  RY, it could be one of the Truck 46 Backdraft rigs.

• #8 by RY on March 5, 2013 - 11:10 AM

  

  Know the shop number of T5 ?

• #9 by scott on March 5, 2013 - 9:04 AM

  

  To clarify did Trk 5 have a 300 gallon or 500 gallons booster tank?

Comments are closed.