BonnerSprings.com

A piece of Bonner Springs history recently was returned to the Bonner Springs Fire Department.

When the Frank Harrington family donated a 1941 Chevrolet Luverne “pumper” fire truck Frank had purchased from the city in the 1960s back to the fire department, Denny Hubbel, assistant fire chief, said the firefighters wanted to do the truck justice.

“We’re bringing it back home — that’s how we’re looking at it,” Hubbel said.

So now, in addition to discussing how to restore the truck, Hubbel said the fire department would like to collect as much information about the truck as possible. The department is asking community members to share any memories or photos of the truck they might have.

Hubbel has been friends with the Harrington family for years and remembers seeing the truck at their property as a youngster.

Hubbel said the last fire the truck fought was the Rio Theater at Nettleton and Kump avenues in the 1960s. The late Frank Harrington then bought the truck from the city as a collector’s item, and for several years it sat in a barn and then in a garage at the Harrington home on Emerson.

Bob Harrington, Frank’s son, contacted Hubbel a couple of weeks ago about donating the truck, and Hubbel quickly agreed after getting approval from the city. The truck will be used for public education, and it already garnered some attention in the first week at the fire station.

“We had it sitting out front, and all these people would stop just to look at it,” Hubbel said.

The fire department appreciates the donation, especially knowing the Harrington family might have been able to sell the truck to a collector instead. Hubbel said he has looked up information on similar trucks online and found they fetch a good amount of money.

“Some of them don’t even run, and they want a fortune for them,” Hubbel said.

And this truck is still running, even if it chugs a bit when the engine fires up. It still has the original paint, gold striping and lettering, as well as the original fire extinguishers

The engine has been rebuilt, but only 100 miles have been added since then, so the odometer reads just 4,200 miles.

“For as old as it is, it’s in pretty good shape,” Hubbel said.

Which is why members of the fire department are undecided as to how much restoration work they want to do to the truck — Hubbel would hate to take away the historical value of being able to see the hand-painted gold striping.

“You look at some that have been restored and repainted, and they’re beautiful, but you’ll never get the touch of the scrollwork and the way they did things then,” Hubbel said.

The fire department has one photo of the truck, but it’s a little hard to see. The photo was taken with volunteer firefighters and city officials in front of the old Bonner Springs City Hall when the city received the truck in April of 1942. The truck is almost hidden behind all of the people in the photo.

Hubbel said the photo has been hanging in the fire station for as long as he can remember, and at first he didn’t realize the truck that had been donated was the same one from the photo.

The firefighters hope the community will help them gather memories and photos of the truck — Hubbel knows it was used to “haul the football players” in parades in the past, for example — to better be able to present its history to the public.

Those who have information regarding the fire truck may contact the fire department at 422-5674.

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