I'm a bit of a history buff. I love looking at old pictures of Maine in the days of passenger rail with steam-powered locomotives, old photos and postcards of the town I grew up in and seeing how things used to be done before the age of computer chips, smartphones and electric vehicles.

Firefighting has changed over the centuries as well. With the invention of the automobile, fire trucks replaced horse-drawn firefighting equipment which became a thing of the past.

Many fire department's throughout Maine have vintage fire equipment that you often see in Fourth of July parades and other festivals. The Limestone Volunteer Fire Department in Aroostook County is one of those departments and they have a 1928 American Lafrance pumper. American Lafrance built fire and rescue vehicles for 141 years until they went out of business in 2014.

This 94-year-old piece of history can still pump water nearly as well as modern-day fire trucks as proven when firefighters hooked up the American LaFrance to a hydrant and it pumped water like a champ. But they weren't satisfied enough there.

They researched a bit on how the pumper was manufactured and tinkered with it on a sunny day in August and managed to get this almost century-old truck to pump water from a dump tank. In this case, the water and to be pulled from the tank rather than pumped into the truck with help from the pressure in the hydrant. Pretty impressive stuff!

 

Check out this video of the American Lafrance pumper in action as they fire up the pump.

 

 

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