i think maybe some of you guys might appreciate this. several years ago, the city of indianapolis ran a fleet of old maxim oasis open cab engines. the trucks had been refurbed with 238 detroits, and the gas engines junked. those things ran and pumped like crazy. at any rate, the time came for the old then antique maxim's to be put out to pasture to be replaced with a fleet of then new e-1's which were basically a c model ford, and as i remember, some la france engines.
indy was pretty proud of the new apparatus, and i was home visiting when the fire chief was on the news showing of the new toys. the next day i was downtown. i think it was on a saturday, because there was almost no traffic. i looked behind a building, and in the alley was a pretty big dumpster, and it was blazing. in the distance i hear the sound of a q siren, and, the unmistakeable sound of a detroit diesel rapped out to the max. i pulled over into a parking spot and got out to watch. i figured since i was on vacation, it would be fun to watch other people work for a change.
i'm standing there as an old maxim comes busting around the corner, siren screaming, the old beacon ray flashing, and 2 alternating lights mounted in front of the windshield flashing.
it was manned by 2 guys in the seat, 4 guys on the tailboard, and 2 guys up in the hosebed hanging on for dear life. as the engine turned into the alley, one of the guys on the tailboard fell off, and rolled to a stop at my feet. i looked at him and yelled "safe" and gave the umpire sign, then asked him if he was o.k.. the son of a b*tch was so drunk i don't think anything could have hurt him, and he went staggering towards the engine, with his equally drunk buddies, who were dragging out a booster line to fight the fire with. in a very short time, they got water going, and had the fire out. i think the old maxim only had a 500 gallon tank, maybe 750 tops, but these guys used nearly all if it. then they reeled everything up, and shook hands with each other like they just put out the chicago fire.
now in the distance i hear another q-2, and an electronic siren going, along with a set of grover emergency horns. a flashy new e-1 rounds the corner, turns into the alley, and confronts......an early 50's maxim, a dumpster that's leaking water from every seam, and 8 drunk shriners, and one of the shriners was hosing off a wall in the alley. (the used beer drain type hose). i stood there with a huge smile on my face and watched the officer on the engine as he confronted the unruly pack of "volunteers". in the end, the officer called for police as the shriners were definitely in the mood to whip the officers backside. the shriners left as they came, only without the siren, and as they rounded the corner they were yelling like high school kids at a football game.
i just laughed and shook my head and started to leave when a police car pulled up. the fire officer asked me if i had witnessed what happened and i laughed at him and told him i did, but i had to be on my way. the officer insisted i talk to the cop, and i said i didn't have time, but the officer insisted and called the cop over to where we were standing. the officer told the cop what happened, and pointed at me as a witness. the cop said "did you witness what happened?", and i told him i had. the cop asked what i saw and i told him, "a pack of drunks on an antique as hell fire engine beat a brand new high dollar piece of apparatus manned by so-called professional fire fighters to the scene of a working fire and had the fire extinguished, hose reeled up, and had taken time to [censored] on a wall before the first due engine could even make the scene, and i'll say exactly that on a witness stand. any more questions?". it was decided there would be no prosecutions, but the incident was reported the next day in the newspaper, and the story read, the shriners promise not to do that again.
oh yeah, the officer stopped me as i was leaving and said "you used the terms apparatus, and first due when you talked to the cop, what the hell do you do for a living?" i just laughed and said "guess", then walked away.
