FALLS VILLAGE — The Falls Village Volunteer Fire Department held a fire apparatus parade and show Saturday, Sept. 21 as part of its ongoing 100th anniversary celebration.
Fire departments from all over the state participated. A reporter, wandering around the Housatonic Valley Regional High School grounds, which was the destination of the parade, noted trucks from nearby (Salisbury, North Canaan), near-ish (Riverton, Northville, and Brick Mountain in New Hartford) and from a considerable distance (Old Saybrook, Wolcott).
The 30 or so pieces of apparatus at the high school represented about half of the total from the parade, First Selectman Dave Barger noted.
There were several vintage pieces on display, including “Old Number One,” an 1854 fire suppression machine purchased by Colchester in 1954 from the William C. Hunneman Fire Engine Company in Boston.
Old Number One cost $850 — including postage — as it was mailed from Boston.
Colchester received good value on the investment. Old Number One remained in service until 1924, when it was replaced by a newfangled gasoline-powered truck.
A little closer to home — and the present day — young Hudson Riva of North Canaan sat with a solemn expression in the driver’s seat of the Falls Village antique truck which was very similar to a 1924 REO truck from the Sharon fire department, parked on the opposite side of a tent containing historic firefighting artifacts.
This exhibit included scrapbooks. Within one of the scrapbooks was a photograph of a man Kent Allyn identified as his father at the wheel of a white ambulance with the Falls Village name attached.
Allyn said the photo dates from some time in the 1950s.
The backstory: Allyn’s brother was hit by a car, and it took some 90 minutes for an ambulance to get from Sharon to Falls Village.
Deeming this situation unacceptable, Falls Village purchased a hearse, painted it white, and thus had its own ambulance.
“Remember, we didn’t have EMTs then” said Allyn. “It was ‘load and go.’”
There were food trucks, a raffle, a merch table with sweatshirts and potholders, and music from the Tailgate Band.
And at the end of the evening, fireworks.
