Fire Chief Orlie Ing arrived in Marion Monday night from St. Louis with the new fire truck recently purchased by Marion from the Central Fire Truck Corporation of St. Louis. The fire chief went to St. Louis for the truck after the manufacturer had notified that delivery was being delayed by priority granted defense industries on materials needed for some of the firefighting equipment. The truck was delivered without hose and ladders which will be shipped to Marion as soon as it can be secured from the manufacturers Chief Ing was assured in St. Louis. In the meantime the truck will be available for use with hose and ladders which the fire department already has in its equipment. Addition of the new fire truck gives Marion the best equipped fire department in the city’s history, and places Marion’s firefighting equipment on a parity with other cities of its size throughout the country. In addition to the new truck, the city will keep in service the Dodge pumper which has carried the brunt of the fire department’s work since it was purchased from the Central Corporation in 1935. It is still good for many years service. The new truck is built upon a Ford chassis purchased from Davis Brothers of Marion. It is equipped with a 500 gallon pump and the standard equipment of fire apparatus of its size. Additional features of its construction include a 350 gallon booster tank which carries enough water on the truck itself to extinguish most fires which the firemen are called upon to combat. Connected with this tank are two reels of 200 feet of hose each, enabling the pumper to throw two streams of water simultaneously from the body of the truck without taking time to hook up the large hose. The booster tank which is larger than is installed on most trucks was designed to cope with fires which occur far from a fire hydrant. For fires which necessitate the use of the large hose, the pumper is equipped with a Siamese intake connection which enables the pumper to draw two-and-one-half-inch stream of water from each of two openings of a fire hydrant into the pump at the same time. This equipment is designed to speed hook-up of the fire apparatus at the scene of a fire and to give the pumper a maximum of water from the hydrant. In addition to the pumper equipment the new truck carries two portable Indian hand pumps which firemen may carry strapped to their backs for use in small blazes such as roof fires where use of larger hose equipment is not necessary. A test Tuesday morning showed these hand pumps powerful enough to throw a stream of water over the roof of the fire department. The truck is equipped with miscellaneous apparatus to facilitate coping with fires. This includes axes, crowbar, two movable spotlights on the front, two lights on the rear, a siren and red flasher light mounted on the left front fender, chemical fire extinguisher, and high-powered portable searchlight, and nozzles for the various size of hose. The truck when completely equipped will have 1000 feet of hose and two aluminum ladders also.

(Extracted from local newspapers and compiled by Harry Boyd, posted at http://www.marionfire.us )