Richmond Shreve, vice president of the Antique Fire Apparatus Association of Central New Jersey, washes his 1960 Mack fire truck Monday outside its garage at Middlebrook Crossroads Industrial Park in Bridgewater.
Eric Schwarz
More than two dozen fire trucks, games galore and "a great location" will be featured at Dukes Park during an antique fire apparatus show that will help the Manville Fire Department.
The show will feature 30 or more antique fire trucks and other firefighting equipment.
The Antique Fire Apparatus Association of Central New Jersey will hold its show from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 1 in Dukes Park.
The event is free to the public. Vendors will sell emergency- and fire department-related equipment.
The association will pay for the event through registration and vendor fees, and "anything beyond that we’d like to see the (Manville) fire company get," said Richmond Shreve, vice president of the association.
"We want to hold it in a place where people can find it easily," said Helen Burns of Piscataway, an organizer and wife of one of the members of the association. "Manville is one of the places that really met all of our requirements."
Manville Fire Department will sell hot dogs as a fund-raiser to pay for maintenance on the three firehouses, said Fire Chief Ken Otrimski.
The department also will have information on fire prevention and display some equipment, though the department does not have any antique fire trucks, Chief Otrimski said.
The association chose Manville for its show this year because its former location, the Middlesex County Fire Academy in Sayreville, "is a nice facility, but it has no shade," said Ms. Burns.
Visitors in the past have numbered "from a few hundred to a thousand," said Ms. Burns.
Because the show will be held in a town and not a remote location like the fire academy, Ms. Burns said, a larger turnout is expected.
Mr. Shreve said Manville is attractive because there are plenty of places to shop and eat in the borough.
He said that only about 25 to 30 cars of visitors are expected at the park at any one time, and that the association is seeking Somerset County firefighters trained as fire police to direct traffic.
Mr. Shreve, a Somerville resident, said the group has "high expectations for Manville," and will hold the event there again if it is successful.
The group will hold contests during the show, including a bucket brigade, where participants throw water down a line at a small shed; moving an aluminum beer keg across a steel cable with a hose; and seeing who can roll a large length of hose up the fastest.
Children also will be able to spray targets with a fire hose. None of the events will involve actual fire or flames.
The show also will include a contest for the apparatus. Trucks and other apparatus, all of which are 25 years or older, will be judged for their appearance in several categories, including manufacturer and date; non-motorized; farthest distance driven to the show, in state and out of state; participants’ choice; and best in show.
Some of the trucks will draw water from the Raritan River; while others will be on "static" display.
The Central New Jersey association has about 15 members, Ms. Burns said, and is a chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Appreciation of Antique Motorized Fire Apparatus of America, based in Syracuse, N.Y.
"Most of the people involved in it are firefighters," said Ms. Burns, whose husband, Bob, volunteers with Holmes Marshall Volunteer Fire Co. in Piscataway. "Some of them are just people who love old vehicles."
Mr. Shreve’s vehicle is a 1960 Mack fire truck, manufactured in Plainfield and used in Somerville from 1959-89. The "triple combination pumper" has "no power anything," said Mr. Shreve, an honorary member of the Finderne Fire Company.
He’s had it since 1990 and has displayed it at antique shows and the Somerset County 4-H Fair. He used it in 1999 for one of its original purposes. The engine pumped water for Somerset Medical Center for five hours in the wake of Hurricane Floyd.