About The Museum

Invincible Hose Co. No. 1: Type 75 American LaFrance Engine, 1921

Engine 246 is relocating over the Brooklyn Bridge, across the river of time, to the quarters of Engine 30--the New York City Fire Museum, thanks to the generosity of Bob Cerullo and museum board member Ceasar W. "Sandy" Sansevero. The pumper coming to the museum is not the one presently occupying the quarters of Engine 246 in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, but it was their first gasoline-powered apparatus: a Type 75 American LaFrance 700 GPM rotary gear pumper. It is the only ex-FDNY Type75 known to still exist.

The Type 75's were the principal rigs to replace FDNY's horse-drawn pumpers, and from 1917 through the late 1920's, almost every engine company in the department was equipped with one. Most of them remained in service until the mid-to-late 1930's, with a few being used as spares well into the late 40's. One even managed to survive on reserve status with the department until the early 50's. This particular Type 75 (registration number 3751) went into service with Engine 246 on October 20, 1921 and remained with the company until July 18, 1931. It then became a spare until it was disposed of in November, 1938.

By the 1960's the once ubiquitous Type 75's had literally vanished, until one cold December day in 1969, a small ad for an old fire engine appeared in The New York Times...

After reading the ad, Bob Cerullo, a lieutenant with the Auxiliary Fire Corps, his father, Vin Cerullo, Sr., and Sandy Sansevero, then a lieutenant with Ladder 4, made a trip to Ellenville, New York, where they found this old rig standing forlorn, half covered in snow, at the side of a dilapidated barn. They knew immediately that they wanted it, and after of hours of intense negotiation on the price, the owner decided he would rather see the rig restored than broken up for scrap. After closing the deal, the proud new owners returned to their car; a dead silence came over their laughing wives when they announced their purchase.

On January 10, 1970, Bob, Vin, and Sandy made another trip to Ellenville to retrieve their treasure, unloading it that night in a corner of the Cerullo's shop in Brooklyn.

The next morning, Bob and his father cleaned out the carburetor and rigged a five-gallon gas can behind the seat to deliver a clean supply of gasoline to the cylinders--the original fuel tank was clogged with a greenish mud. With his father holding the choke and his brother holding a fire extinguisher, Bob hit the starter switch. They heard a spit, a pop, and then a loud bang from the exhaust; then all at once the engine was running! When Sandy got home from the firehouse that night, they were ready for their first run. The broken-down, faded and rusted old fire engine roared down the street with its three beaming owners sitting up on the crumbling front seat. According to Bob, "It was an awful mess, but no one could have been more thrilled or more proud than each of us that night."

During the restoration, paint remover ate its way through layers of faded red paint and there merged in large gold leaf letters, "F.D.N.Y. 246." The owners were excited to discover that their rig had been assigned to a firehouse located just a few minutes from their shop! A few weeks later, the New York Daily News ran an article about the restoration project and soon after, retired firefighter Billy Walsh appeared at their shop. He sat for a moment and then, with a broad smile, announced that this was indeed old 246. Walsh filled them in on the names and personalities of the men who served with him on this pumper; these stories brought a whole new life to the restoration project.

The rig had been cannibalized over the years and there were dozens of parts to find: they bought headlamps from a man in Ohio and a motor meter from someone else in Texas; they found a steering wheel restorer in California; a leather shop in Manhattan was able to duplicate the original leather and design of the front seat; a pipe-bending firm in Gravesend Bay came up with just the right die to bend the brass tubing for the odd-size hand rails; the owners themselves built a new steel frame for the hose bed.

In the years since they completed the restoration, Bob, Vin, and Sandy spent many wonderful hours in parades and musters, winning numerous trophies for the rig's uniqueness and excellent restoration; they helped raise money for charities and even took a volunteer firefighter to his wedding.

This old rig is a very special part of the heritage of the New York Fire Department, especially since her contemporaries have long since laid down and died. She has refused to give up; she is invincible. Like the department from which she came, and the firefighters who manned her, she is the best. She is Invincible Hose Co. No. 1 and she will occupy a place of honor in her new home.

This article has been adapted by the editors from Bob Cerullo's article in WNYF, 2nd 1977, with additional information provided by Jack Lerch

About The Museum - Our Collections