Southern Vintage Fire Apparatus Association
The Southern Vintage Fire Apparatus Association is a Gardendale-based chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Appreciation of Antique Motorized Fire Apparatus in America with members across Alabama and Georgia. The group's president is Mountain Brook mayor Terry Oden. The group meets monthly at Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q in Homewood.
The non-profit group's members own 25 vintage fire engines, many retired from local fire departments and restored to period detail. 12 of them are currently housed at the former Barber Motorsports Museum's 6th Avenue South location.
The group has recently worked for more public awareness. They held their first annual "muster", or show of vehicles, outside their storage facility on June 9, 2007. Members have driven vintage trucks in the annual Veterans Day parade and to chauffeur Santa Claus to The Summit.
The group is hoping to establish a permanent home for its collection, perhaps as a museum open to the public, and perhaps in a former fire station. In 2013 the group was required to vacate their 6th Avenue South storage area to make way for Trim Tab Brewery. Twenty-five pieces of equipment were stored for a year at a nearby Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency warehouse in Avondale. The arrangement was made with by Oden, who also chairs the Jefferson County Mayors Association executive committee which oversees the EMA's operations.
Vehicles
- 1890 hose cart
- 1917 Seagrave Tillerman
- 1927 American LaFrance (Homewood Fire Department's first engine)
- 1952 Ward-LaFrance fire truck (from New Paltz, New York)
- 1954 Mack pumper
- 1955 Dodge fire engine
- 1960 powder truck (Center Point Fire Department)
- 1960 Seagrave 100-ft aerial ladder truck (Birmingham Fire & Rescue Service)
References
- Singleton, William C. III (December 24, 2007) "Birmingham area group works to preserve old fire engines; permanent display housing considered." The Birmingham News
- Chambers, Jesse (October 16, 2008) "Vintage views: Finding a home for Birmingham’s historic fire-fighting equipment." Birmingham Weekly
- Wright, Barnett (July 29, 2014) "Group headed by Mountain Brook's mayor relocates fire trucks after questions are raised." The Birmingham News