While accepting Christmas trees for disposal is a community service, the Colwood Fire Department was helping achieve a couple different goals as its volunteer members piled up evergreens behind the fire hall last weekend.
As well as dropping off trees to be recycled and chipped into mulch, the public were also passing along donations to the Colwood Volunteer Firefighters Historical Association. The group maintains the firefighting museum adjacent to the hall on Metchosin Road and has an ongoing program to restore and refurbish equipment from past eras, from pumper trucks to hand pumps and more.
The latest project, being overseen by recently retired Colwood fire captain Frank Gale, involves restoring a Maxim trailered fire pump, one of many self-contained units built in the 1940s to address firefighting capacity when most truck chassis production was channelled into the war effort.
This particular model was formerly based at old Yarrows shipyard in Victoria. The trailer itself is finished, its bright red paint gleaming under the lights in one corner of the museum. However, it needs to have the working elements added, which is where Gale comes in.
As the former mechanical expert for the department, he has taken on rebuilding the motor, which will sit roughly in the middle of the assembly, and the pump, which will be installed in a bracket on the back end of the trailer.
While rebuilding the 1937 Ford flathead motor offers relatively simple challenges, the pump has been a different story, he says. “We want to bring it back to its original form,” Gale says, “but they’re few and far between to find parts for.”
He’s managed to connect with other fire equipment historians in the U.S. – the Victoria Fire Department Historical Association has a similar model in its collection – but tracking down original parts is difficult. At Yarrows, if a part gave out on the pump, the remedy would often be to manufacture a replacement to keep it working, Gale says. So, his search for the real pieces continues, both online and via email.
The society’s collection at the museum is available for viewing by the public during the day. Simply check in at the fire hall office, and someone on duty will accompany visitors over.
To make a donation to the society, either call the hall at 250-478-8321 or stop by at 3215 Metchosin Rd. For more information on the museum and collection visit colwood.ca, click on City Services and find it under the fire department heading.
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