The Hall of Flame Museum, located in Phoenix, Arizona, is home to the National Firefighting Hall of Heroes and has almost an acre of fire history exhibits, over 100 fully restored pieces of fire apparatus on display (dating from 1725 to 2004), a children’s area, and museum gift shop. While most of our collection focuses on the American firefighting experience, we also have fire apparatus and related artifacts from England, France, Austria, Germany, and Japan. The Hall of Flame Museum is supported by the National Historical Fire Foundation.
Im from Pa and Visited last April with my uncle a day after doing the Granite Mountain Hotshots hike. It certainly was an experience to see that buggy sitting there on display. Thank you!
Hi Mark, that was a great segment on the ERF Fire truck, I have subscribed to your channel, so I hope to see a lot more of your museum in the future, when I was a young person, the Fire Brigade in Christchurch New Zealand has one of these truck, but without the wheeled ladder. best regards to you and all the museum staff from a New Zealander now living in Australia.
This just come up on my feed. We had ERFs in London during the 70s and early 80s. Difference to yours being it was completely red. On my first day in 1982 at station we had one of these on the run as a spare as our Chelvoke engine was in workshops. It was an escape which had a reach of 45ft. Reaching a fourth floor window. As well as carrying a hook ladder. My first ever call (shout) was on this truck. Quite cramped in the cab and the drivers complained about the offset steering wheel position whilst driving. Good stowage. These were phased out when escape ladders and hook ladders were discontinued in the early 80s. Which meant a different design was needed so new trucks appeared. With a Dodge badge. The real smoke eaters preferred escapes and hook ladders. But times change. And so did recruitment 😉 Surprised to see one in the US. Thanks for the memory 👍
I think some of the comments here are a bit harsh, the geezer got a few things wrong, but all in all, a good ERFfort. As an ex London firefighter, it's nice to see our American cousins taking an interest in our gear. The video of Reigate was brilliant, I remember going there for training and knocking down a low wall with a Merc! Happy days😂
In the town I firefight in, during the 1870s there were 4 part time chemical companies, and 1 full time fire department. In the 1890s the chemical companies were shut down and 5 men from each chemical company were brought on full time on the fire department. Before this video I couldn't find any information on what a chemical company was. Thank you for helping me fill in this knowledge gap!
I had all the Smoky Stover comic books, all in good condition. When I went into the service my mother gave all my comic books to a little boy at our church. I did not realize she had done that until years later when I was moving into my own house after I got married. I was upset but what could I do at that point in the game. I always kept my comic collect in good condition. Just think of what each of those Smoky Stover comic books would be worth today !! 🤬🤬🤬
We call it an EE-AR-EFF. I’ve never heard one called an Erff. And although ERF does stand for Edwin Richard Foden, I’ve never heard one called an E R Foden either - and I’ve grown up with ERFs. And as for it being a good fire truck. Mixed reports by all accounts. I know firefighters in my county had a few in the fleet, but never rated them. They much preferred their Bedfords, Fords and Dennis F series trucks.
My former Fire Department had two of these, designated Water Tender Ladders (They carried a 46' ladder on the roof, not the wheeled escape carried by this one). The Chassises were steel, engines Rolls Royce RB81 inline 8 cylinder 8 litre petrol with Allison New World automatic transmission. They were great to drive, and excellent pumps (Ours had the Dennis No 2, two stage back to back 900 gpm 4 delivery low pressure, and John Bean Royal 65gpm HP supplying the two hosereels mounted in the base of the rearmost lockers). The cab was wood with steel reinforcing covered by fibreglass front and roof and aluminium doors and side panels. The rear body was wood framed with steel support and aluminium panels. As I said, they were great to drive, the road handling was excellent, the suspension good, and plenty of power both for the drive (fully loaded with equipment, water tank and crew just over 14 tons) and superb pumps. Only thing on the road they couldn't overtake was a petrol pump. Those RR engines were "thirsty"! Oh, and the badge on the door says that she was originally with the Nottinghamshire County Fire Service (the County includes Nottingham and Sherwood Forest). She will have been in 'front line' service for at least eight years, then relegated to second response and finally 'reserve' until sold.
Mark, HofF did a beautiful job on the restoration of T24. I remember this truck when it was on display, unrestored, at the Fire Museum of Maryland. Why not mention that in the video? I know there was some sort of trade between the museums that resulted in HofF receiving this rig. One day I will make it out to see the Hall of Flame. Love the videos.
I visited the Hall of Flame a few years ago, I did not see the Smokey Stover display, my grandfather built a Foo Mobile! It was featured in Popular Mechanics, my grandfather got to meet and befriend Bill Holman, One of his Foo Mobiles is in the Museum in Nappanee, IN
Very informative. Unfortunately, some of the British isms that you conveyed are wrong. Nobody ever referred to E.R.F as, "Urf," for a start. Do some research on us and the way we speak before making your video.
I live in the next town to Retford, called Worksop and this would be part of the same Fire Service fleet of the County of Nottinghamshire. Another popular maker of fire engines in the UK were the company called Dennis. A school friend once asked me 'why are all fire engines called Dennis?' He didn't realise it was the manufacturers name! Sadly we also hear less and less of the old two tone sirens on UK emergency vehicles now. Such a shame as they were distinctive of the UK and the best warning to traffic to get out of the way. North Wales Fire Service do however have the European Martinhorns on their fire engines though and they are similar but very loud!
Good looking Seagrave wagon. The fire company I ran with was a dedicated Seagrave customer for approximately 8 decades. Numerous pumpers, ladder trucks and squads were bought by the company. The last Seagrave purchased by the company was a 1989 1250 GPM pumper. When staffing allowed we would run a two piece engine company. The 89 would go as the wagon and the 67 open cab would run as the pumper. Fun times back in the 90's for me.
Love it! France via the euro tunnel to the Uk ...somehow via the Panama Canal an route to the states. It goes British Isles...Atlantic...USA And a fire escape (ladder) is the same in every English speaking nation
Nope. A fire escape is the same in Britain as tbe USA. That is a wheeled escape and that pump is an E R F not an 'urf'. That 'horrorfyingly heavy' escape is actually a very light and easy to use tubular steel Merryweather. You want heavy then try a wooden trussed 65ft four extension Morris escape. That Merryweather is but a mere toy in comparison. The ERF has an all steel running chassis but the bodywork is wooden frame coachbuilt by HCB Angus.
The chassis is not made of wood! It's made of steel. It's the rear bodywork (probably by Jennings who were taken over by E R F) that's a wood frame clad in aluminium. Just to make things even more complicated the cab is mainly fibreglass. Here's some added information - what you have is an E R F 84, which was a cab/ chassis built exclusively as the basis for fire appliances. That was quite a financial leap of faith by E R F in the narrow fire appliance market. They sold well mainly because their price undercut all the competition. Sadly they were quite unpopular, some of the reasons being; the steering wheel, which was slightly offset from the driver's seat, and the windscreen which was set low in the cab's front, causing even drivers of normal height to hunch down to see where they were going. They also had a habit of shedding those windscreens as the cab could flex excessively in certain circumstances. Nevertheless that cab with a variety of engines, bodies and cab detail changes were once a common sight on the streets of UK Australia and NZ. London UK still had reserve examples on the run in the late 80s. Enjoy!!!
this guy really needs to get his facts right that fire engine is a pump tender the ladder on the back is a wheeled escape ladder and over here in England ( just so he knows thats another name for united kingdom ) we do in fact have metal ladders bolted to the sides of mills and some other high buildings which are called FIRE ESCAPES
Shaun Parkinson You get you facts right FFS. England is NOT another name for the United Kingdom. The UK is England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Great Britain is those plus Eire. The British Isles also includes the Channel Islands. I wouldn't totally expect him to know that but you should. Also a pump can be anything smaller than a water tender. A water tender carries a minimum of 400 gallons of water and has a main pump of 1000 gpm in addition to a LPP. If it has a wheeled escape is a WrE i.e. a water tender escape. If it has a 13m ladder then it is a WrL i.e. water tender ladder. If it carries shorter ladders it is WrT water tender. These are strict definitions but they are now just generalised jnto Water Tender and Water Ladder as wheeled escapes are no longer in general use and there are very few major pumping appliances that carry less than 400 gallons these days.
@@Biffo1262 If you are going to criticise others, you should be certain to get your facts right. The UK is the United Kingdom of Great Britain (i.e. England, Scotland & Wales) and Northern Ireland. Eire (the Republic of Ireland) is a foreign country.
My grandfather is this builder of the Foo Mobile, check out June of 1978 Popular Mechanics Magazine to see the build, I have driven multiple Foo Mobiles that he built. We still have the original in Indiana
Thank you for sharing this. We have this same device in our queue line of our ride, Blazing Fury at Dollywood theme park and have been looking for info on it. This video was a wonderful source of info. Thank you.
