Firegeezer.com has an article entitled “Toy Fire truck Saves the House” about a man in New Athens (IL), 30 miles southeast of St Louis, who purchased a used engine and ended up putting it to work on a fire in a building on his property.
Schilling bought the 1987 Ford pumper equipped with a 750-gallon booster tank for $5,000 from the O’Fallon Fire Department in southern Illinois and before he drove it away, they showed him how to put the pump in gear and charge the line. Fortunately, as it turned out, he left the tank filled because he primarily wanted the truck to clean off heavy equipment at his hog farm and other chores, as well as having some fun with his grandkids.
But on Monday his whimsical purchase was repaid when fire was discovered in his son’s home also located on the farmland.
When the first units arrived from the Smithton Fire Protection District, they were surprised to see a pumper from O’Fallon, which is 20 miles away already on the scene.
