Villa Park Fire Department history « chicagoareafire.com

Villa Park Fire Department history

This from Mike Summa for #TBT:

For TBT-Villa Park Engine #3, a 1968 Pirsch 1000/500. Enjoy and comment.

Mike Summa

#chicagoareafire.com; #FireTruck; #TBT; #VillaParkFD; #vintage; #classicfireengine; #Pirsch; #MikeSumma;

Mike Summa photo

And from our files:

#chicagoareafire.com; #FireTruck; #TBT; #VillaParkFD; #vintage; #classicfireengine; #Pirsch; #shapirophotography.net; #larryshapiro; #Larryshapiro.tumblr.com;

Larry Shapiro photo

Tags: #larryshapiro, #TBT, 1968 Pirsch fire engine, chicagoareafire.com, classic Pirsch fire engine, larryshapiro.tumblr.com, Mike Summa, shapirophotography.net, throw back thursday, throwbackthursday, Villa Park Fire Department history, vintage Pirsch fire truck

This entry was posted on September 14, 2023, 7:00 AM and is filed under Fire Department History, Fire Truck photos, Historic fire apparatus, throwbackthursday. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Comments

#1 by crabbymilton on September 15, 2023 - 8:45 AM

Very true. But if PIRSCH was strong enough in the market, perhaps they would have been around today.
#2 by Mike on September 15, 2023 - 6:51 AM

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pirsch

https://www.firehouse.com/apparatus/article/10510077/ignorance

Pirsch is no longer around due to a lawsuit from a firefighter fatality. The handrail on the cab was the issue.
#3 by crabbymilton on September 15, 2023 - 6:32 AM

PIRSCH went out of business in circa 1987-1990. They seemed to have any number of internal problems contributing to their downfall. Milwaukee had 8 PIRSCH rigs on order to be built on SPARTAN rear engine chassis. However, when they began building the rigs, PIRSCH started shutting down. These rigs were finished by E-ONE using the HUSH chassis instead.
AMERICAN LaFRANCE had a very long history of embedded quality problems and had several owners over the years. They almost went out of business a few times only to be saved by being aquired any number of times. They really seemed to be doing well when they became part of the old DAIMLER CHRYSLER empire 1995. In 2005 DAIMLER-CHRYSLER sold to PATRIARCH PARTNERS. But ALF filled chapter 11 because of internal system problems in 2008. They seemed to recover for several more years but not enough since ALF pretty much ceased to exist in 2014. Those EAGLE’s were attractive rigs following classic ALF designs. But they had many quality issues. Sure, we all appreciate history and heritage of American apparatus builders. But that’s not enough to sustain them if they don’t pay attention to quality. Many departments have always bought from certain builders exclusively for decades while others take a generic approach and buy whatever the low bid is. Bottom line is will it work when that alarm sounds and will it hold up?
#4 by Michael m on September 15, 2023 - 3:49 AM

What happened to PIRSCH. Why did they wind up going bankrupt? I am guessing it was poor financial management? It sounds like America. LaFrance went bankrupt in the 2010’s because of poor financial management?
Does anyone know the last “model year” that they produced their trucks? If I had to guess the lay trucks PIRSCH produced had to be in the mid to late 80’s? What is the last “model year” for American LaFrance 2015, 2016 ish?
#5 by crabbymilton on September 14, 2023 - 11:55 AM

Those PIRSCH cab forwards were very popular around the Milwaukee area with several Milwaukee County suburbs having these well into the 1980’s. MFD had 2 of these built in 1963 that served into 1989.
#6 by Mark Finocchio on September 14, 2023 - 9:58 AM

For those who aren’t aware, Villa Park had an all-Pirsch fleet throughout the 60’s and 70’s. 4-Pirsch cabovers like old Fire 3 (pictured) 1-Pirsch engine forward pumper and a Pirsch engine forward 75′ midship aerial quint.