CALEB SPROUS
Skagit Valley Herald, Mount Vernon, Wash.
(TNS)
ANACORTES — For the past few years, Anacortes residents and visitors have observed a piece of history driving along Commercial Avenue as part of the city’s 4th of July celebration.
That piece of history is the old Anacortes Fire Department’s LaFrance fire apparatus, which is celebrating its 100-year anniversary this year.
The engine was acquired by the city of Anacortes at a fire equipment expo in California in 1924, and served Anacortes firefighters through the 1950s before it fell into disrepair.
An effort to restore the engine to its former glory began to unfold in the 1990s.
Loren Knudson, a master mechanic, lobbied the city to restore the engine and was ultimately extended a $24,000 line of credit by former Mayor Dean Maxwell, according to LaFrance volunteer Dick Storwick.
Knudson, who died in 2021, enlisted the help of his coffee group to begin restoration efforts.
“Fortunately, most of the really technical stuff had been done by (Knudson),” Storwick said. “He was into restoration, he was a master mechanic. He did the complete engine teardown and restoration. So, the heavy work and skilled work, he pretty much took care of that.”
“When he passed, it was mostly finishing up what he started.”
The restoration group started with about nine members, but 16 total volunteers worked on the restoration over a period of nearly 30 years, according to the group’s volunteers.
Outside of restoration volunteers, the group credits about 14 organizations and people for contributing to the restoration.
While the restoration process began in the 1995, the LaFrance Fire Engine wasn’t able to move under its own power until 2014.
“The engine fired up, and even drove it around the block. Magical. All of a sudden, things started coming together,” Storwick recalled.
As volunteers, no one in the restoration group has been paid for their efforts and have often contributed money to the restoration.
Some group members find compensation in the form of fraternity and community building.
“I retired here (in Anacortes) after 30 years in the Navy and I was kind of lost for the first … year,” Storwick recalled. “As you’re aware in the military, you go into work and you know what’s going to happen that day, it’s already been planned out …”
“When I got involved with the group here … it was a good transition point,” he said. “And it’s like I say, it’s a group, we hang out together, we have coffee four or five times a week, we party together.”
One LaFrance volunteer, Michael McCunn, moved to Anacortes in 2008 and the restoration group served as not only his introduction to the city, but as an extension of fraternity for retirees who so often can need a sense of community.
For him, that has been the biggest highlight of working on the LaFrance.
“Outside of the fire engine, we watch out for each other,” McCunn said. “I feel so lucky to have that because so many retired people are out walking their dogs and that’s about it. But in our case, it’s an introduction into the whole city …”
Thanks to the group’s efforts, the LaFrance has moved under its own power in five Anacortes parades.
“Everybody is looking at you and high-fiving us, and the kids are looking at us and it’s … really satisfying to see people appreciate something like that,” McCunn said of riding the LaFrance during Anacortes parades.
Outside of the restoration efforts, the group has been looking for a location to permanently display what Storwick calls “the last piece of operational Anacortes history.”
“We’re trying to negotiate with the city,” Storwick said. “We’ve got a building that we’d like to have which would have glass windows so people could see it.”
“… We would just need a piece of land to plot this down,” he said. “And we are willing to fund it outside of city money.”
The group is also looking for new members with mechanical experience to join its decadeslong volunteer effort.
“We’d like to see people, retirees, that have time and some mechanical expertise (to) stop by and say ‘Is this something I can contribute to?’” Storwick said.
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