Fire truck leaving impressive legacy

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This article was published 07/04/2022 (1259 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

KILLARNEY — A modified 1967 GMC 960 has been the Killarney-Turtle Mountain Fire Department’s most reliable automotive workhorse for more than 50 years, serving as a pumper truck, a water tanker and a parade float for special occasions.

But despite its versatility and iconic green paint job, the department is in the process of phasing the truck out of its fleet due to National Fire Protection Association guidelines, which require first response vehicles like this to contain more modern features such as air brakes, LED lighting and baffled water tanks.

Even though the 1967 GMC 960 is a couple years away from these regulations taking effect, fire Chief Troy Cuvelier is still sad about the truck’s forthcoming retirement, since it’s the first fire engine he learned to drive after joining the department in the mid-1990s.

“So it kind of has a lot of sentimental value,” Cuvelier told the Sun on Monday. “And it’s still being used today, whereas most of our other trucks have become outdated every 15 years.”

After being assembled in Pierreville, Que., the 1967 GMC 960 was put to work in Killarney a year later, serving as the local fire department’s main pumper truck for the next two decades.

Starting in the late 1980s, the truck was increasingly used to extinguishing rural grassland fires, with newer models being brought into the fleet to handle urban response.

However, deputy fire chief Sean Phillips, who joined the department in 1991, still maintains that the 1967 GMC has held up a lot better than these other trucks over the years, partially because its body is made of metal instead of fibreglass.

“For the amount of service it has seen and the rough roads it’s been on, it’s actually in very good shape,” Phillips said on Wednesday. “I think it’s just that they were built better back in the old days.”

Members of the Killarney-Turtle Mountain Fire Department have also gone out of their way to keep this vintage fire truck on the road for more than half a century.

Besides conducting persistent repairs and maintenance checks, the local firefighters converted the truck into a water tanker in the early 2000s, when its pumping system was no longer up to snuff.

This transformation allowed the GMC truck to stay in the fleet as a support vehicle for another two decades, since its lightweight frame gave the department the ability to traverse some rough terrain in the country.

“This will still be used for shuttling water until we can get a replacement tanker,” Phillips said. “That could be a couple years from now. Fortunately, we still need water out in the country, so it’ll still be used for that.”

Installing a power steering system was another retrofit that vastly extended the truck’s lifespan, even if that process required local firefighters to think outside the box.

“We actually found a guy in Ninga who had an old school bus around the same year and we were able to take all the power steering off of it and adapt some brackets and get it universal again,” Cuvelier said.

While the 1967 GMC truck has taken on less of an active role in the department throughout the last 20 years, it has remained a community favourite.

Not only has its likeness been plastered all over coffee cups, postcards and tourism pamphlets, but the truck has also been a mainstay of public events like the St. Patrick’s Day parade, where local firefighters get to set off the still functioning air siren.

“So it’s an icon of Killarney,” Phillips said. “It’s something unique, and I know there’s a lot of people who have come to visit from other cities and places around the world who want to see the green fire truck.”

Because of this reputation, Cuvelier wants to save the 1967 GMC truck from the scrapyard whenever the municipal government finally finds its replacement.

Right now, the fire chief has his sights set on retiring it into the Turtle Mountain Flywheel Club Museum, since this facility boasts an impressive display of vintage tractors, trucks and farming equipment that are all available for public consumption.

“We don’t want to get rid of it, but we’ve kind of got our hands tied and we’re hoping we can make a good home for it [at the museum] or at least use it for fair days, parade days or something else to show the truck off,” Cuvelier said.

And while the department is always looking ahead to the future, having recently acquired a new heavy-duty brush truck to bolster its fleet, Phillips admits it will still be a sad day when he and Cuvelier have to put this historic first-response vehicle out to pasture.

“We’re the longest-standing members of the department currently and we’ve used this truck lots in our younger days, so it will be hard to see it go.”

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