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See you around, you
old double-clutcher
By Bob Rhoades
There is a name for people who become attached to inanimate objects but
when I Googled it, there were 5 pages of information so I decided not
to look into it. I thought about that because of the old girl in
the picture to the left. Greenville Fire Dept.’s Engine 2. There
has always been the attachment thing but in the beginning it was with
the horses. Cincinnati bought their first motorized fire
apparatus around 1910 but never put it in service because they couldn’t
figure out which horses to get rid of first. When half of the
town was on fire one night, they figured it out.
We didn’t have that problem; Engine 2 was a very welcome sight back in
1972. It was amazing! For the first time we had an engine
with seats so we could get ready on the way to the fire. A few
years after that, we actually got enough people to do that. Its
rated capacity was 1250 gallons per minute but pumped well over that
when it was new. After the first rehab it was outfitted with 3
pre-connected 1½ “ hose beds allowing us to yank a line off and
immediately begin fighting the fire instead of fiddling around getting
it hooked up. There was also pre-connected 2½ “ hose on the rear
for added extinguishing power as well as two beds for supply
lines. Later large diameter supply hose, 4” and now 5” supply
line was added.
Officially it was a 1971 Mack CF series delivered in 1972. It
joined a 1958 Mack Aerial Ladder truck on the front line. The
Maxidyne Diesel powered it and never missed a lick. At one time
almost all of the FDNY apparatus were built by Mack. They were
just about indestructible. The speedometer on a fire apparatus
only tells half of the story. It tells nothing of the hours spent
pumping water on fire scenes.
One of the more memorable pumping assignments was the night the Old
Darke County Tile Mill on Chestnut burned. It was Friday the
13th. The tinder dry structure caught fire and already had a fire
storm going across Chestnut when we arrived. E2 tied up at the
hydrant at Chestnut and Bickle Hill which at the time was one of the
best hydrants in town. It was pumping all of the pre-connects,
supplying an engine from New Madison and deluge gun water curtain down
Chestnut protecting those houses. It never missed a lick all
night. That was the same day the Darke County Home was hit by
lightning. Like I said Friday the 13th or when it rains it
pours. We were tired that day, the Mack wasn’t.
E2 was on the scene at Corning Glass for every one of the tank breaks
after 1972. Since Corning’s fire pumps on their fire loop were
capable of over 2000 GPM, E2 usually ended up in the cave area attached
to a hydrant and being used as a distribution point. A couple of
those tank breaks lasted 8 hours. The need for water sometimes
approached around 1500 GPM on those incidents and was so critical that
the water plant had to be notified to add a pump on line out there.
Always first in on a structural fire with the attack crew in the back
seats, you got a real pattern nailed down in your head approaching the
scene. Get the engine stopped past the fire so you all see three
sides of the building, emergency brake on, gear shift goes in 5th gear,
flip the switch to engage the pump, let out on the clutch and hear the
pump kick in. Out of the cab and on the ground the engine was
waiting to do its thing. Next you watch for the attack crew to
drop the attack line and the sign to charge the line. You’ve
opened the tank to pump valve, open the attack line valve, up the
engine RPM’s and you can tell when they’re throwing water, gauges move,
it’s time to get the supply line hooked up to the pump. One blast
on the air horn and the hydrant man flows water, as the water hits the
pump impeller, close the tank valve. You made it. Time to
see what the inside crew needs, E2 will run itself for a while.
After getting axes, ladders, pike poles and whatever else, you get time
to refill the tank for later when the supply line is taken up and
things wind down. E2 is still running. By now she’s pumping
a couple of attack lines, running flood lights, fans and whatever else.
Her compartments have been ravaged for supplies and tools. It’ll
be a while to put this all back together.
She was rebuilt 3 or 4 times, each time saving the taxpayers a ton of
money. If ever there was a piece of equipment that the City of
Greenville got there monies worth out of this was it. Built like
a Mack Truck wasn’t just a saying. Guys all over the US who had a
Mack Fire Truck will tell you that. I don’t have a piece of the truck
but I’ve got something as good as that. When E2 was
delivered it actually came through a local dealer, Harvey Hole Mack in
Versailles. Holes were very proud of the Mack Trucks they sold
and real proud that there now was another fire truck besides the one
Versailles had. All of the firefighters got a replica of the
famous Mack Bulldog tie tack. It was a little different; he had a
fire hat on his head. Not many of those around anymore. I
know where mine is. Mack doesn’t make fire trucks anymore so
there won’t be another one. Boy, the one we had sure was a
dandy. Forty years on the line. That’s a pretty good
record. I hope the new ones last that long.
See you around you old double clutcher.
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